Anti-Qing: Starting from the Jintian Uprising

Chapter 197: The cost is high, the enemy is weak, change clothes? Change your sister's clothes!

Before the birth of breech-loading weapons, or more precisely, before the birth of rapid-fire machine guns and breech-loading artillery, the battlefield was still dominated by dense arrays.

Even during the period of line-up executions, the army's tactics were still to line up in neat and dense formations and advance forward!
It’s just that compared with the dense arrays in the cold weapon era, the thickness of the arrays in the line-up shooting era has become much thinner.

But starting from today, things are going to change.

In the face of breech-loading artillery and rapid-fire machine guns, if anyone continued to charge forward in a dense array, they would be courting death.

There will be no actual results at all!
So, to some extent, these new weapons in the Tang Dynasty Arsenal are revolutionary weapons.

Once on the battlefield, they will unleash quite terrifying fighting power!

Upon hearing this, the project leader spoke.

"Your Majesty, please give this machine gun a name!"

After hearing this, Li Yi thought for a while and then said.

"Since this type of rotary machine gun was developed and finalized in the first year of Zhaowu, it is also a heavy weapon used to suppress the enemy's firepower on the battlefield."

"Then let's call it the Yuannian Heavy Machine Gun!"

Upon hearing this, the craftsmen of the project team bowed with joy on their faces.

"Thank you for the name, Your Majesty!"

Li Yi nodded slightly and then asked.

"What is the production capacity of rotary machine guns? How many can be produced in a month? What is the cost?"

The person in charge of the machine gun project spoke upon hearing this.

"Your Majesty, with the current production capacity of our military arsenal, we can produce at most ten rotary machine guns per month, and the cost is 230 silver dollars per gun."

Li Yi nodded and continued to ask.

"What about the bullets used in the Yuannian heavy machine gun? What is the production capacity? How much does it cost?"

The production capacity of metal fixed bullets in the Tang Dynasty is limited and not very high, so Li Yi asked this question.

The people in the rotary machine gun research and development project team did not know about this.

The person in charge of the metal fixed-charge ammunition research and development project team came forward to report.

"Your Majesty, our military arsenal is currently able to produce three types of metal ammunition of different calibers."

"The first is the 7.62 caliber rifle bullet, which can be used in new rifles, lances, and the Yuannian heavy machine gun."

"The production capacity is about 1.2 rounds per month, and the cost of a single bullet is silver cents."

"The second is the 5.56 pistol bullet, which is supplied for use with new pistols."

"The production capacity is 1 rounds per month, and the cost of a single bullet is silver cent."

"The third new shotgun uses shotgun shells with a monthly production capacity of 0.7 rounds and a production cost of silver cents."

When it comes to processing difficulty and cost, shotgun shells are obviously cheaper than rifle and pistol shells.

Having said this, the project leader went on to explain.

"Your Majesty, the reason why the cost is so high is that most of our military arsenals are still in the exploratory stage of producing new weapons."

“Failed to go into mass production!”

"Once the new weapons are put into mass production and the production scale is increased, the price will definitely drop significantly."

Upon hearing this, Li Yi nodded with satisfaction, and then began to give guiding opinions on the development of the arsenal.

"Not bad!"

"The production capacity of the arsenal will continue to increase, but it cannot just be the production capacity of existing mature products, but also the production capacity of new weapons must be gradually increased."

"In terms of firearms, the arsenal should allocate more of its new production capacity to the production of new rifles that use metal fixed ammunition."

"The same is true for the bullet production line. While maintaining the original paper shell bullet production line, we will also add a metal shell bullet production line."

The reason why Li Yi made such arrangements was not because he did not want the army to replace its equipment with new breech-loading rifles and metal fixed ammunition as soon as possible.

This is because the production capacity of metal fixed ammunition at the Tang Dynasty Arsenal is really limited.

Before the production capacity of metal fixed ammunition is fully developed, the breech-loading rifles using paper shell fixed ammunition and the production lines of paper shell fixed ammunition cannot be completely dismantled, and a part of them must be retained.

Otherwise, once the bullets were used up as soon as they entered the battlefield, the Tang army would have no choice but to degenerate into a cold weapon unit and fight the enemy with bayonets.

Li Yi continued.

"In terms of artillery, the production capacity of large-caliber muzzle-loading artillery can be retained for the time being, but the production capacity of small-caliber field artillery must be transferred to breech-loading rifled artillery as soon as possible."

"The production capacity of fixed-caliber metal shells of different calibers must also be increased as soon as possible."

In terms of artillery, Datang currently has only two new breech-loading artillery pieces, one is the Type 50 field gun, and the other is the Type 75 field gun, both of which are typical light artillery.

As for breech-loading heavy artillery, it is still in the stage of research and development and imitation.

Before the breech-loading heavy artillery is successfully developed, it is necessary to retain some production lines for the muzzle-loading heavy artillery.

Then there is the issue of cost!

Breech-loading weapons are easy to use, but they generally have a fast rate of fire, and are more expensive to produce and use.

Take the rotary machine gun as an example. When this thing starts firing on the battlefield, what it shoots out is not bullets but pure money.

Before the industry developed to a certain level and could produce bullets and artillery shells at a lower cost, the Tang Dynasty could not sustain such consumption.

In addition, the main enemy of the Tang Dynasty is the Qing Dynasty, and the weapons of the Qing Dynasty are still muskets, cannons, and even cold weapons such as swords and spears.

Facing such an enemy, the breech-loading rifles using paper shell fixed ammunition and muzzle-loading artillery currently equipped by the Tang Dynasty are enough to crush the enemy by a generation gap and are completely sufficient.

There is no motivation to replace new weapons, right? Well, in history, after the British invented the breech-loading rifled cannon, they still used the muzzle-loading cannon as the main artillery of the army for a long time. This is why.

The cost is high, the enemy is weak, change clothes?

Change into your sister's clothes!
Wouldn't it be nice if he could put the money he saved in his own pocket and use it to support a mistress?

In fact, if Li Yi had not always regarded European powers such as Britain and France as imaginary enemies, the Tang army's goal of building an army would have been to resist the invasion of the Eight-Nation Alliance, even defeat it, and counterattack their European homelands.

I'm afraid he has no motivation to equip the army with new, more expensive weapons.

"In addition, the production scale of smokeless gunpowder and TNT should also be expanded. Whether it is metal bullets or artillery shells, the demand for smokeless gunpowder and TNT will only continue to increase..."

Li Yi continued.

In fact, gunpowder and explosives have never been the same thing.

To put it simply, it is the difference between propellant and explosive.

Smokeless gunpowder is the most typical propellant, while yellow gunpowder is the explosive.

The two never work the same!
The function of propellant is to provide kinetic energy for the projectile, push the projectile out of the gun barrel and cannon bore, and fire it out.

This requires that the propellant cannot be too strong, otherwise the projectile will not be fired and will explode instead. Isn't this bullshit?
Explosives are used in the warhead to explode and kill the enemy, so the greater the power, the better.

The properties and technical requirements of the two are completely different.

Naturally, when Li Yi wanted to explain, he had to talk about the two separately.

After explaining all this, Li Yi's inspection of the arsenal was almost over.

Before leaving, Li Yi gave further instructions.

"Send a copy of these new weapons to the Military Academy."

"Order the Military Academy to gather and observe the use of new weapons. Then, let the Military Academy begin to try to explore the use and tactics of new weapons."

"Submit a report to me as soon as possible!"

The innovation of weapons will inevitably lead to the innovation of tactics.

If Li Yi did not want the Tang army to be completely clueless about the use of new weapons when they go to the battlefield in the future, then it would be necessary to let people explore new weapons and new tactics in advance.

……

After leaving the arsenal, Li Yi went to the machinery factory for inspection without stopping.

The main purpose of his visit to the machinery factory was to personally watch the test run of the steam locomotive.
Soon, Li Yi arrived at a testing site.

Li Yi deployed a lot of soldiers to guard the entrance and exit of the only valley in this test site.

A closed-loop railway track about two kilometers long was laid in the test site.

On the railroad tracks, a steam locomotive lay quietly.

It seems to be waiting for someone to wake it up.

Li Yi walked to the steam locomotive, and the project leader Niu Zhenbang came forward to introduce it.

"Your Majesty, this steam locomotive adopts a three-pair wheel design and uses a single-cylinder steam engine as its power source. The cylinder pressure reaches 1.035 MPa and the vehicle weighs 2.65 tons."

"It can carry 30 tons of cargo and run at a speed of kilometers per hour on the rails..."

Li Yi nodded and said.

"Let's start the test drive."

Niu Zhenbang immediately took the order and went downstairs to convey Li Yi's order.

Following Li Yi's order, the engineers stepped forward to ignite and add coal to the steam locomotive.

As black smoke billowed out of the chimney, China's first steam locomotive in this time and space began to operate slowly.

As the valves are adjusted, the steam engine outputs power and the wheels of the steam locomotive begin to turn slowly.

The steel wheels rubbed against the rails, making a metallic friction sound.

Soon, the steam locomotive started moving and ran along the rails.

And, as time went on, steam locomotives began to get faster and faster.

Everyone opened their mouths in surprise.

This was the first time that many people directly faced the impact of industrial power.

"Such a huge lump of iron, with so many carriages attached to it, was just taken away like that?"

"My God, this steam locomotive is amazingly tight."

"My goodness, if the whole world were to be paved with such railways, wouldn't horse-drawn carriages be eliminated?"

Li Yi was standing aside, his expression also slightly moved, and his eyes were a little complicated.

This is the power of industry!

Sooner or later, I will lay railway tracks all over China so that all Chinese people can enjoy the convenience of industry.

Taking a deep breath and suppressing his inner excitement, Li Yi asked Niu Zhenbang who was standing beside him.

"Have you ever calculated how much it costs to lay one kilometer of railway?"

If Li Yi wants to lay railways on a large scale, then cost is the first issue he must consider.

Even though the Tang Dynasty has built several large steel and iron mills in Guangdong and Guangxi, the cost is still unlikely to be low given the steel prices of this era.

Railway tracks are really expensive.

(End of this chapter)