Chapter 1296 New Artillery

Since Haihan started the arms sales trade many years ago, artillery has been one of the most favored objects on the weapons list. So much so that Western countries like Portugal had to give up selling old weapons to Far Eastern countries at high prices.

Instead, they imported artillery from Haihan to arm their colonies in the Far East. Haihan's artillery business also gradually expanded from exporting dozens of cannons per year to now exporting hundreds of cannons per year.

The profit is even higher than that of a rifle.

Although the scale of Haihan's exports is now much larger than in the past, the demand gap still exists objectively. Just the large and small city passes in Annan require thousands of city defense artillery. Of course, using hardened

The defense plan of city defense artillery was naturally suggested by Haihan's military adviser. Otherwise, how could a country like Annan, which is under the protection of Haihan, need so many city defense artillery. They were bought from Haihan at a high price and brought back to the country for deployment.

In fact, most of the city defense guns were never fired, they were just placed on the top of the city and slowly rusted.

Are the Annan people so stupid that they can't understand Haihan's arms sales routine? That's not necessarily the case. Some of them are lining their own pockets and taking huge kickbacks; some are pretending to be deaf and mute and don't care about the matter; and there are still others who need help from this

This kind of arms trade is to consolidate the military alliance with Haihan. There are many vested interests involved, and the situation is relatively complicated. However, if this unscientific arms trade can be maintained for a long time, Haihan will not be able to choose only one person.

Internal factors in Annan also accounted for a large part of the heat.

In fact, other buyers have more or less similar situations. Urban defense artillery has always been the main type of artillery exported by Haihan. In addition to making a lot of profits for Haihan, these heavy big guys

It will not pose much direct threat to Haihan, and the armaments of these countries and regions can be incorporated into Haihan's military industry system. It can be said to be a sales strategy that kills two birds with one stone.

However, the guns launched today are not city defense guns. After the tarpaulin on the gun body was removed, it was revealed that they were four field guns with different diameters. The biggest difference between this kind of gun and the city defense gun is that the gun body is removed from the frame.

It has two huge wheels, which can be directly pulled and transported by animal power. There is a mechanical device under the gun body, which can easily adjust the shooting angle by turning the wheel by hand. In addition, there is a hoe on the gun mount, which can be lowered to the ground during war.

, used to unload the recoil force when firing and stabilize the gun body.

Haihan has exercised extremely strict control over the export of field artillery in the past few years. Even a regular customer like the Fujian Xu family, who is not short of money and has good connections, can only buy a handful of field artillery from Haihan every year.

Number. On the one hand, this is to control risks. After all, the guns sold may be turned into weapons used to attack the Haihan Army on the battlefield one day in the future; on the other hand, almost all the output of Haihan Ordnance Industry is used for

To meet the needs of the military, there is basically no excess production capacity for export. After all, the structure of this field gun is much more complicated than the bare barrel of a city defense gun, and the manufacturing time requires much longer.

For many buyers, Haihan field guns have always been a hot spot for purchase. Since the number of field guns sold by Haihan Ordnance every year is extremely limited, and buyers are very enthusiastic about buying, it seems that it doesn’t matter which one they sell to first.

It’s too fair. So starting from 1631, the annual field gun sales have adopted a bidding method. Monthly shipments are limited to five guns, with a one-year delivery period. Bidding is conducted in batches. Each month’s shipments are determined by price.

The higher one gets it, and there is only one size for the six-pounder gun, so there is no room for choice.

If you want to equip your own army with the advanced Haihan artillery as soon as possible, you will inevitably have to bid at a high price. Buyers with less financial resources can only wait for a few big customers to buy it before making any plans.

Of course, it does not mean that the price will be much cheaper if you are at the back of the queue. For wealthy and willful customers, participating in the bidding for each batch is the best way to lower the purchase cost. And Haihan intentionally does not make mistakes every year

The number of times you can participate in the bidding is limited, so basically the sales of twelve batches of field guns in a year will have a pretty good performance.

During the most intense period of the Fujian Strait War from 1631 to 1633, Xu Xinsu did not hesitate to spend a lot of money to purchase field artillery in order to strengthen the armament of her army as soon as possible. The highest unit price even exceeded 10,000 yuan, which was more than the price of urban defense artillery of the same level.

As much as three or four times. Because of this, buyers have never been satisfied with Haihan's supply capabilities.

In fact, Haihan's sales strategy is simply a kind of hunger marketing, deliberately controlling the supply volume to regulate the supply and demand relationship, artificially creating a market situation in which supply exceeds demand, and using this to affect the final selling price and achieve the purpose of increased sales. Auction

The supply seems fair, but the high added value generated in actual operations is far more powerful than Haihan's own price increase, and it is easy to create a competitive situation. When buyers are excited, they will naturally become more

It’s easy to shout out a high price.

Of course, in order to save money and trouble, it is not impossible to modify the city defense cannon into a field cannon on your own. However, the performance gap between the self-modified knockoffs and the genuine ones is too great. In the city offensive and defensive battles, it is just fine, and you have to drag the city defense cannon south.

It was unrealistic to conquer the Northern War. Therefore, the demand for field artillery was not greatly affected by the sales of urban defense artillery.

The field guns that Haihan Ordnance showed to all parties today are three-pound guns, six-pound guns, nine-pound guns and twelve-pound guns. As for the larger-caliber twenty-four-pound guns and those specially used for bombardment

The city's 48-pounder cannon had no export plans at all, so it was not included in the display.

However, the audience was not sure whether the artillery that Haihan unveiled this time was intended for export, or whether it was just brought out to whet everyone's appetite as usual, and was announced after viewing that it was not for sale. Therefore, the audience behaved calmly and did not

The same enthusiasm as when I just test-fired the rifle.

But at this time, Yan Chujie walked to the front, took the tin trumpet from the guard, and said to the audience: "Everyone, the four kinds of artillery we are showing here today will be included in the list of export weapons in the future.

model, so buyers who are interested in purchasing field guns, please be sure to watch the subsequent artillery demonstration carefully. As for more specific performance parameters, we will issue written information for your reference later."

There was an uproar in the audience. Although I had always hoped that Haihan could provide more field gun models to choose from, in previous years I was used to rushing to buy six-pound guns. This year, four models were launched at once.

It really exceeded everyone's expectations. Everyone had a lot of questions and wanted to ask Yan Chujie immediately, but Yan Chujie said that he would let everyone watch the demonstration first and ask any questions later.

The shooting demonstration process of artillery is actually very similar to that of rifles. Targets of different sizes at different distances are shot to observe its lethality, accuracy, effective range, operating procedures, etc. Of course, the targets are not suitable for use with rifles.

The iron target was punched through. This time, a three-third-thick iron plate was directly lifted out. However, because the target was too large and heavy, it was troublesome to transport, so only target samples were shown to the audience, and the target position was

Heavy iron targets have been arranged in advance.

Four artillery pieces with different calibers were fired at targets at the same distance to compare the difference in lethality. Although these smoothbore cannons still use solid shells, their power is increased because of the use of Haihan's special gunpowder.

It should not be underestimated. At a distance of two hundred meters, even the three-pounder cannon with the smallest caliber easily penetrated the target.

The target position is gradually opened at a distance of 100 meters, but after 300 meters, the target as big as a door panel becomes a small piece, and there is no scope on the gun to use, so the gunner can only

Relying on the ruler and experience for aiming, from this distance on, the artillery at all levels gradually missed the target. However, this was not a problem in the eyes of the audience, because when viewed through the telescope, the impact point did not actually deviate too far.

More, it is already above the average level.

The lethality of small-caliber artillery has obviously decreased at longer distances, and it can no longer penetrate the iron target. The sound of metal collision when hitting the target is very clear. However, the effective range of these guns is

They have exceeded 500 meters. The inability to penetrate the iron target does not mean that they are less powerful. In actual combat, even after the shells hit the ground with all their force, the kinetic energy of the re-bounce is enough to tear the human body into pieces together with the shield and armor.

The final result was that the twelve-pounder gun used five shells to hit the target at a distance of 800 meters, which is considered the model with the longest effective range. However, it could no longer penetrate the target at this distance and could only

It left a deep dent.

While the soldiers were retrieving the targets from a distance, Yan Chujie came on stage again to explain the performance characteristics of these types of artillery. Although Liu Shang didn't understand this stuff, he listened very carefully and listened carefully.

Han Chujie memorized all the information disclosed in his mind. He also knew that Haihan's artillery-making skills were excellent, but he had no idea before that Haihan's arms trade was so large that so many countries would come to Haihan.

The Han Dynasty ordered arms. Fortunately, the Ming Dynasty has not had any conflicts with the southern countries in recent years, otherwise it might have suffered a big loss due to the gap in weapons.

The soldiers dismantled the target, pulled it back to the auditorium on a carriage, and then showed everyone the effect of the shelling. The holes and craters on the iron plate were clearly visible, and it was not difficult to deduce from the bullet marks which type of shell it was.

hit.

Although Yan Chujie did not give a more specific explanation on the sales method, but simply revealed that these models of field guns will be put on the market for sale, this was enough to arouse the enthusiasm of buyers. Dong Yanyun even expressed his position on the spot

, we will place orders for four types of artillery pieces, and we are just waiting to see how Haihan sells them. If nothing unexpected happens, it will be logical to make a lot of money from artillery orders this year.

But the artillery firing demonstration was not over yet. Yan Chujie announced that he would also display a "concept product" that is still under development. Then two packhorses pulled a gun carriage covered with oilcloth to one of the gun emplacements.

Above, Yan Chujie personally stepped forward to lift the tarpaulin and show the new artillery to the audience.

Although the caliber of this gun cannot be seen for the time being, there are many officers from various countries present. Judging from the thickness of the barrel, this gun is probably similar to the caliber of the nine-pounder. But the special thing is that this gun is not

The shells were loaded from the front, because the artilleryman operating the gun had opened a bolt device at the rear of the barrel, revealing a hole. Sure enough, the caliber was consistent with everyone's predictions.

The breech-loading cannon has been equipped in the Haihan Army for some time. Although only a small number of elite frontline troops are currently equipped with it, this news cannot be hidden from well-informed people on all sides, and its firing principle is not a secret. It is just a matter of various countries.

The gun-making technology was limited, and it was impossible to imitate a breech-loaded cannon that could be put into actual combat applications. The breech-loaded cannon displayed by Haihan at this time was also the first time for most people present to see with their own eyes how this structure was related to the past.

A very different new type of artillery.

However, some people couldn't help but have an idea. The Haihan Army has already been equipped with this kind of artillery, and it has even been used in actual combat. You, Yan Chujie, actually have the nerve to call it a "concept product". To put it bluntly, it is not

Are you planning to sell it overseas? Why bother to be so pretentious and release this thing as a new product?

But those who thought this way were quickly slapped in the face. The artilleryman opened the box containing the shells. What was inside was not a round solid shell, but a long shell with a front cone and a rear column. It was about six inches long and thick.

It is consistent with the nine-pounder cannon shell. Judging from its appearance and color, it seems to be made of brass. The artilleryman stuffed the shell into the barrel from the tail, then closed the gun bolt to complete the loading.

"This... can this cannonball be fired?" "Haihan people always have fantastic ideas, and it's hard to tell if they may have magical uses." "Why does this cannonball look a bit like the paper shells used in Haihan rifles?

"

The audience was talking a lot, and some of them noticed the true characteristics of the artillery shells. Copper-cased artillery shells and barrel rifling are inevitable forms when artillery evolves to an advanced stage. Breech-loaded cannons with rifling have already been made.

, however, Haihan's metal processing capabilities were limited in the past, and it was difficult to make copper shells with actual combat capabilities. This is also a project that Haihan Military Industry has only recently successfully tackled. Of course, judging from Haihan's current production capacity and cost,

It is still unrealistic to mass-produce such artillery and shells, so this cannon is indeed just a prototype sample. Yan Chujie calls it a concept product under development, which is not a pretense.

Looking at the audience's reaction, Yan Chujie knew that this cannon had aroused everyone's curiosity, and he hoped so. The actual shooting effect of this cannon would definitely shock these people.
Chapter completed!