Chapter 894: Cavalry Rifle

"For Britain!"

The salty, humid sea breeze blew from the blue sea surface, and Wesley raised his wine glass once again.

"For Britain!" Johnson also shouted loudly, "Teach those yellow-skinned monkeys a hard lesson."

"We'll hang them one by one, especially that monkey called Yan Wang." Wesley slammed his fist heavily onto the table.

After staying at Boer Port for three days, the fleet once again set off in a grand manner toward Tianzhu.

……

Yanzhou.

While Liu Fu was leading the civil officials in a vigorous institutional reform.

Zhao Xu and Yang Feng were at the Drill Ground of the Armament Department inspecting the breech-loading cannons prepared for delivery to the army.

Just as he had said in the imperial court.

The current focus of Great Song was development, while simultaneously preparing for the coming war.

So, after he became free, he turned his attention to military equipment.

Furthermore, last time when he was in Jinling, Wang Ying had sent a letter telling him that a prototype of the breech-loading cannon had been manufactured.

His reply was to have him build a production line and manufacture them in batches.

Now, the Armament Department had already stockpiled a large number of breech-loading cannons, but they had not been delivered because the Prince's Personal Army and the Qin Army were still fighting.

"Your Highness, whether it is the rifled cannon or the howitzer, they have all adopted breech-loading now. According to Your Highness's design blueprints, the caliber of the howitzer's barrel has been reduced and the barrel length increased; the range of this batch of howitzers can reach eight li," Wang Ying said, pointing to the howitzer in front of him.

Zhao Xu nodded; the style of the howitzer before his eyes was already infinitely close to the style of howitzers from the First World War era.

In successive wars, one problem had been fully exposed.

That was, during battle, because the range of the howitzers was short, they could only be used to bombard the enemy's trenches after the rifled cannons had cleared the opponent's artillery.

This caused the efficiency of the war to decrease significantly.

Therefore, after solving the breech-loading problem, a howitzer with a long range and small caliber was needed to replace the large-caliber, short-range howitzer.

Thus, this breech-loading howitzer was born.

At present, this howitzer weighed two tons, the barrel was two point four meters long, the elevation angle was zero to forty-one degrees, the caliber was one hundred and fifty-five millimeters, and by lengthening the barrel, its maximum range reached four thousand meters.

The rate of fire per minute was the same as the Qin-series rifle, capable of reaching ten rounds, almost three times that of the old-style howitzer.

On both sides of the barrel were huge wheels, and there was also an iron plate in the position between the barrel and the breech mechanism.

This was to protect the artillerymen and prevent them from suffering gunfire.

In general, the era of the previous large-caliber, portable howitzers had ended, and the era of heavy howitzers had arrived.

After all, the Great Song army would be facing Western Lands armies in the future, so it must be ensured that the howitzers could remain outside the range of the opponent's artillery.

Glancing past the howitzer, Zhao Xu looked toward the rifled cannon again.

Like the howitzer, there was a structure similar to an iron plate on the rifled cannon.

And compared to the howitzer, the elevation angle of the rifled cannon was very small, and the barrel was very long.

Obviously, the range had also been increased through the barrel.

"The effective range of this breech-loading rifled cannon has reached sixteen li," Wang Ying continued.

"Eight thousand meters." Zhao Xu revealed a satisfied expression.

During the First World War era, the range of just a howitzer could reach sixteen kilometers, and a rifled cannon could easily reach over thirty kilometers.

The reason why there was still a gap between the Armament Department's artillery and the artillery of the First World War was as follows.

This was because electricity had already been popularized during the First World War era.

For one, it could produce oxygen, used for oxygen blowing during converter steelmaking, and at the same time, there was special artillery steel, allowing the barrel to withstand more propellant.

And it was because the precision of mechanical processing had improved, solving the gas leakage problem of breech-loading, which allowed the range to increase greatly.

Once electricity was popularized in the Workshops of Great Song in the future, they would gradually be able to bring the weapon level up to the First World War level.

But even so, he was already very satisfied.

He believed that whether it was the range of the field howitzer or the range of the field rifled cannon, because of the advanced design, they currently surpassed the Western Lands.

"Incredible." Wang Ying's introduction made Yang Feng sigh with emotion, "However, since the range of the howitzer is already so far, is there no need to equip rifled cannons anymore?"

Zhao Xu and Wang Ying looked at each other and laughed.

Wang Ying said, "Although that is so, the number of rifled cannons can be reduced, but they cannot be cancelled. Simply put, compared to howitzers, rifled cannons are more efficient at clearing the opponent's forts."

Zhao Xu nodded to indicate that what Wang Ying said was correct.

During the First World War era, howitzers were used to bombard trenches, and rifled cannons were used to blow up the opponent's bunkers.

By the Second World War era, they were used to hit tanks.

So although the range of the howitzer had increased, rifled cannons were still needed to solve the problem of attacking fortified positions.

Walking around the two cannons, Zhao Xu said to Wang Ying, "Since that is the case, just try to deliver both types of artillery to the army."

"Yes, Your Highness," Wang Ying said.

Afterward, the two followed Wang Ying to the office.

Besides inspecting the two types of breech-loading cannons, Zhao Xu had another important purpose for coming this time.

It was to have the Research Institute and the Armament Department cooperate to build a small Power Plant within the Armament Department to ensure the electricity usage of various Workshops within the Armament Department and to carry out suitability modifications to the machinery within the Workshops.

In this way, the next step for the Armament Department would be to attempt the research and manufacture of metal-cased ammunition and the nemesis of cavalry—the Machine Gun.

Besides this, there was another important matter, which was also a task that could be carried out at present, and that was to manufacture the firearm exclusive to cavalry, the Cavalry Rifle.

After firearms appeared, cavalry had attempted to be equipped with firearms.

But because firearms needed to be muzzle-loaded, the cavalry often loaded the bullets before fighting and fired one shot when facing the enemy; the efficiency was too low.

Thus, firearms did not become popular among the cavalry.

It was not until the contemporary nineteenth century, after the Second Industrial Revolution, that the Revolver appeared and the era of large-scale equipping of firearms for cavalry arrived.

Later, with the emergence of the breech-loading rifle, a firearm specifically designed for cavalry also appeared: the Cavalry Rifle.

This type of breech-loading Rifled Musket is much shorter than the rifles used by Infantry, to facilitate firing by Cavalry.

Because the gun is short, the effective range is also shorter.

Zhao Xu estimates that the Cavalry Rifle manufactured at the current technical level of the Directorate for Weaponry will have a maximum effective range of about two hundred and fifty meters.

This range is quite lackluster for Infantry, but for the Cavalry, it is more than sufficient.

Using the Cavalry Rifle to fight the Northern Di Light Cavalry is completely enough.

Since ancient times, the dynasties of the Central Plains have been inferior to the people of the Grassland in mounted archery.

The gap lies in archery on horseback, but as long as they are equipped with the Cavalry Rifle, the opponent's advantage will vanish into thin air.

From now on, the Great Song Cavalry will no longer fear the Northern Di Cavalry.

At present, the Northern Di are colluding with the Westerners, threatening the security of the Great Song.

Before the Machine Gun, that destroyer of cavalry, appears, the Cavalry Rifle is clearly a good transition.

Otherwise, how could he face the combination of Northern Di Cavalry and the Infantry of the Ross nation in the vast Grassland?

In history, the Grassland has never been conquered by relying solely on the two legs of the Infantry.