Chapter 237 Expedition Preparation
The vetch field outside the Springfield Arsenal was full of small purple flowers. Bees shuttled between the flowers, and bullets whizzed past their heads.
Frederick took a telescope and carefully observed the dusty earth wall 300 meters away, and was quite satisfied with Pea Gatling's performance.
The principle of Pea Gatling is not complicated. Six sets of barrels - gun chambers - jet tanks are combined together. When viewed from the side, the tailstock is concave below and protruding above, plus the convex shape on the jet tank. The jet tank is pushed forward by the tailstock when it rotates, inserting the warhead into the gun chamber and firing, and then moves back to make room for new warheads to enter.
Theoretically, its rate of fire depends on how fast it can turn. People in the arsenal often joke that it needs to be driven by a steam engine.
The pea Gatling currently being tested at the factory has a caliber of 10 mm. It has a common warhead and a pea gun. It is shaken manually and fed by a long magazine. Because of its heavy weight, it is mounted on a wheel frame or carriage.
Except for Richard Nall, he asked Bruce to modify a Pea Gatling for himself, added a strap and handle, and changed the position of the rocker so that it could be hung on the shoulder. He holds the rocker in one hand and fires it with the other hand, and carries a pile of heavy magazines on his back, which looks very cool.
In addition to the Pea Gatling, the Wesson Army has now installed a new type of pea gun. The new gun adds a continuous fire function to the original single-shot shooting, and uses a 20-round magazine. The firepower of individual soldiers is greatly improved.
In terms of artillery, due to the limited level of alchemy, the quality of nitrocellulose was very unstable, and the initial velocity of projectiles fired from the jet tank was not high. Frederick finally chose gunpowder as the propellant for the artillery.
The caliber of the artillery is 75mm. It uses brown gunpowder made of incompletely carbonized charcoal. The integral cannon shell is rear-loaded, and a spring retractor is used to reset the barrel. The maximum range reaches 3 kilometers. , the entire gun weighs about 1.3 tons.
Because the shells made of copper alloy of the artillery shells are shiny and golden, people call them "golden stick guns".
It's just that the manufacture of this kind of artillery and ammunition is more troublesome. Frederick only ordered the production of 12 guns, and the rest of the guns were jet mortars.
On the other hand, the jet mortars that played a great role outside the bastion of Hanma City were lightly modified and used to support the infantry. At the same time, some were sold to Baron Adikon to install on the ship, which blew up the pirates. The ship rolled away as far as it saw him.
Compared with the upgrade of weapons, the most important change of Wesen Army is the reform and expansion of its organization.
The original organization of 12 people per squad remains unchanged. An infantry platoon has 3 peashooter squads and 1 cherry artillery squad, and an infantry company has 3 infantry platoons and 1 equipment with 3 A Pea Gatling fire support platoon. An infantry battalion has 3 infantry companies and a fire support company equipped with 6 Pea Gatlings and 9 jet mortars. A regiment has 3 infantry battalions. and a rapid support company equipped with twin Pea Gatling wagons, a brigade with 2 regiments.
In addition to 2 infantry brigades under a division, there are 1 division-affiliated cavalry regiment, 1 division-affiliated magician battalion and 1 division-affiliated fire support brigade. The fire support brigade is equipped with 12 golden rod cannons and 54 rocket launchers. The division's combat, staff, communications, logistics, medical, intelligence and other units at all levels add up to about 18,000 people, 5,000 horses and 30 tractors.
With Frederick's current financial resources, he could only afford the main force of one division, so that the current city defense troops and other garrison troops could only use revolver rifles that were originally supposed to be sold to allies.
But it’s worth it.
The war between the two neighbors, the Principality of Franconia and the Union of Regans, continued until last year. At the end of last year, a forest fire caused by a battle between them spread to Wesson.
After finally putting out the fire, Frederick led the entire army to the battlefield to talk to their counselors about compensation. In the end, the war horses of the Grand Duke of Franken and the luxurious carriage of the Grand Duke of Legens were pulled out. Compensation to the State of Wesson.
The two countries have no money to continue fighting, so they can only cease fire along the line of actual control.
Frederick inspected the Springfield Arsenal, asked Bruce to focus on ammunition production, and then left, coming to the headquarters in the military camp.
Today there are two colors of military uniforms in the military camp, in addition to the gray of the Wesson Army, there is also the black of the Restoration Army formed by Prince Dragaces.
Dragaces eventually recruited 2,000 people in the past few years, and with the funding of Frederick, he formed a pure infantry infantry regiment, using old-fashioned pea guns replaced by the Wesson Army. , the combat effectiveness is okay. Now that everything is ready, Constantbul can finally be recaptured.
The map room of the command headquarters was replaced with a sand table of the area around Constantbul. Franz Jr., the military minister of the Wesson Army, and Helmut, the staff officer, brought the staff officers, army chiefs, and Dragaces' people together. Discussing battle plans.
For this war, Franz Jr. and others have gone to the local area in various capacities to conduct field investigations in recent years, and gained an intuitive understanding of the terrain and the layout and characteristics of the enemy.
Now everyone has reached a consensus on the strategy and is adding some details.
The biggest problem at the moment is transportation. The entire waterway from Weissensee to Constantbul is about 3,000 kilometers. Frederick will take away the main force this time, plus Dragaces’ small team. , the transportation of more than 20,000 people and supplies required a huge fleet.
“Is there any news from Hayreddin?” Frederick asked.
To organize such a large fleet on the inland sea, the only person Frederick knew was Hayredin.
Helmut immediately replied: "We have received a telegram from the city of Wien. Hayreddin's fleet is passing through the city of Wien in the Osmaga Empire and will arrive at the designated location soon. "
"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs called. They have reached an agreement with the Osmaga Empire. Our fleet is prohibited from docking when passing through the city of Venn. If the commander wants to enter the city, he can only bring fifty people. "
Frederick nodded. The city of Venn is the imperial capital of the Osmaga Empire. There have been wars like the False Dao Defeat in this world, and people are afraid that they will suddenly do something like this.
Seriously, Frederick was once moved.
"Where are the material supplies?" Frederick asked again, "Do they agree to our supply along the way?"
This journey is more than two thousand kilometers and sails on the Danube River. The Danube River leaves the Principality of Bain and is the capital of Oss. The territory of the Maga Empire would be in trouble if supplies could not be supplied along the way.
Helmut replied: "They only agreed to use small boats to go to the shore to purchase."
Frederick frowned and thought for a long time. This kind of small-scale supply would be detrimental to the huge fleet. He said it was a drop in the bucket, and finally said: "They are still worried. Let's talk to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I will go to Wayne City for vacation in two days. I will leave after the fleet has passed. I will be alone."
Everyone around the sand table glanced at each other, thinking they were being held hostage.
Dragaces asked worriedly: "Is it too dangerous?"
Frederick smiled and shook his head, and replied: "No, I have no grievances with the Osmaga Empire. Qiu, I did them a favor by defeating the Piast Kingdom. They have no reason to be disadvantageous to me."
Dragaces said again: "It's just the heirs within the Osmaga Empire. The competition is very fierce, I'm afraid you will be involved."
Frederick replied: "Don't worry, I will just be there to eat, drink and have fun."
(End of chapter)