Chapter 405: Canned Food

Soon Gao Da understood why the French generously handed over the blueprints of the originally confidential M1897 75mm artillery to Spain.

It turned out that in a certain battle, the French army had already used this new type of 75mm rapid-fire gun. This artillery with an extremely fast rate of fire not only surprised France's enemies but also surprised many European countries.

German officers hurriedly reported the news that France possessed an extremely fast-firing 75mm artillery to the country, and the German government also immediately requested the famous military enterprise Krupp to come up with an artillery with a rate of fire comparable to the opponent in a short period of time.

The German government's order suddenly made Krupp dumbfounded. They had not even seen what France's rapid-fire gun looked like, so how could they copy a similar rapid-fire artillery?

What kind of principle France's rapid-fire artillery used and what components it had inside, they were completely ignorant of. Under these circumstances, it was impossible to come up with a similar rapid-fire gun in a short period of time.

In order to complete the task assigned by the German government, Krupp requested the German government to purchase a few rapid-fire guns from France; as long as there were samples, the research and copying tasks would become much simpler.

But long before Krupp made the request, the German government had already contacted the French side. France was not unwilling to sell the M1897 75mm artillery, but the target of the sale did not include Germany.

It could even be said without exaggeration that France would rather sell this artillery to Britain than hand over any part of the artillery to any country or force that had contact with Germany.

They were willing to hand over the blueprints of this artillery to Spain, but there was a prerequisite, which was to require Spain to promise that the blueprints, the artillery finished products built from the blueprints, parts, and everything else would be prohibited from being exported to Germany and its allies for the next 10 years.

The reason for setting a 10-year deadline was, firstly, the French felt that their artillery technology would have greater progress after 10 years, so naturally, there was no need to hide or tuck away backward products.

Furthermore, Germany's own military technology was not bad; even if it could not copy a similar artillery in a short period of time, there was still hope of copying the artillery within 10 years.

Upon learning of the French government's request, Gao Da did not hesitate at all and immediately let the diplomatic mission agree to the French side's request.

For Spain, this was basically equivalent to a gift sent for free, so it was definitely impossible to return it.

In the future, Spain could refer to this 75mm artillery in the development of small and medium-caliber artillery, thereby developing rapid-fire guns of different calibers.

When Spain's artillery rate of fire was several times that of the enemy, one had to ask how the enemy should fight this war. As long as Spain's logistics supply was sufficient, it could completely adopt the method of firepower suppression, bombarding the enemy's defense lines unscrupulously, and achieving the goal of rapid advancement.

Doing so could also effectively reduce casualties; the increase was nothing more than the consumption of artillery shells and the expenditure of military spending.

The Spanish diplomatic mission stayed in France for a full three days, then took a train south from France, crossed the border, and entered Spanish territory.

This diplomatic visit to France was originally a deterrent to Britain and Germany; after achieving its goal, this diplomatic visit should naturally end.

At least Gao Da had not decided on his own stance yet; under such circumstances, he definitely could not give the Germans the illusion that Spain had already allied with France.

After the diplomatic mission returned to Spain and had a period of rest, Spain would send new diplomatic missions to the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Italy.

Doing so was also telling the Germans that Spain was still neutral and would not stand on the opposite side of Germany.

Gao Da did not want to be involved in the confrontation between the two major military groups for no reason; even if he was involved, it would have to wait until Spain had obtained enough benefits.

An artillery blueprint was obviously unable to satisfy Gao Da's appetite, and moreover, the time point for the outbreak of the world war was still too far away, and Spain had no need to take a clear stance for the time being.

When the diplomatic mission brought the M1897 75mm artillery back to Spain, Gao Da immediately handed this artillery blueprint to the Royal Military Factory and issued two orders.

First, in the next few years, use this blueprint to build a large number of 75mm rapid-fire guns and equip them to Spain's Royal Army and Imperial Guard.

Second, according to the principle of France's 75mm rapid-fire gun, copy artillery with smaller and larger calibers to increase the rate of fire of these artillery pieces.

Just imagine, in the future, Spain's artillery with a caliber of over 100mm could also achieve a rate of fire of more than ten rounds per minute, which would completely widen the firepower gap between the Spanish Army and other countries' armies.

Considering the solid defensive facilities and bunkers in World War I, Gao Da also decided to increase the firepower of the Spanish Army.

How to increase firepower? Of course, it was to equip some giant guns with more exaggerated calibers to increase the artillery's ability to destroy defensive facilities like reinforced concrete.

Of course, it was definitely impossible to manufacture the exaggerated giant guns that Germany manufactured in World War I.

That kind of giant gun was too troublesome to transport, and its lifespan was extremely short, so it was not cost-effective most of the time.

Only when attacking the enemy's extremely important defensive facilities, such as when Germany attacked Paris, could it be used. For Spain, the 11-inch and 12-inch main guns mounted on the ironclad ships that had already been eliminated were already completely sufficient for the Spanish Army.

The caliber of the 11-inch main gun was as high as 278mm, and the caliber of the 12-inch main gun reached 305mm. Although current battleships used main guns with larger calibers of 13 inches or even 13.5 inches, the 11-inch main gun could still penetrate 20cm of warship steel armor from a long distance.

Using such artillery to attack the enemy's reinforced concrete fortifications, even if one or two shots did not have much effect, bombarding them with more than ten shots in a row could still easily destroy the enemy's fortifications.

It just so happened that the Spanish Navy had a large number of ironclad ships in service; after the birth of the dreadnought, these ironclad ships would completely lose their function.

At that time, it would be completely possible to dismantle the ship guns on these ironclad ships and convert them into giant guns or railway guns that could be used by the army, providing strong firepower support for the army in future wars.

The Royal Military Factory, having received Gao Da's order, did not dare to be the slightest bit careless and immediately began to study the artillery blueprints gifted by France.

Regarding the M1897 75mm artillery, which could be called a masterpiece of France, the weapon design experts of these military factories discussed it for a long time and were finally completely convinced by France's military design.

It had to be admitted that although France had declined in terms of industry and economy, France's foundation in military technology still existed.

Without this blueprint, even if they had witnessed with their own eyes how exaggerated the rate of fire of this artillery was, they would still be unable to copy a similar rapid-fire gun.

Of course, as long as there was a blueprint, all copying work would become simple.

One only needed to produce the various parts required for the artillery according to the blueprint, and then assemble them according to the blueprint, and a brand-new M1897 75mm artillery would be fresh out of the oven. ===== CHAPTER 406 =====