Volume 1: The Battleship Yitian Changes into the Sino-Japanese War of 1894 Chapter 94: The First "Air Force" and the First Hand Grenade
"Sir, the Ordnance Department has sent people to deliver everything you need." Zhan Shuxiao said to Sun Gang.
"Didn't I tell you not to call adults?" Sun Gang said, patting his shoulder with a smile. He and Zhan Shuxiao had just finished test-firing the Gatling gun. This two-person-operated "CIW" grandfather version had a high rate of fire but was too bulky. It would be great if it could be improved.
This type of rotary machine gun invented by American Gatling during the Civil War was later called the "Gatling Gun" (it has a deep connection with the one used by Schwarzenegger in "The Terminator"). This is the world's first successful multi-barrel machine gun. It has six barrels installed side by side on a rotating cylinder. With each rotation of the handle, each barrel completes the actions of loading, firing, and ejecting shells in turn. The Gatling Gun was a masterpiece of manual machine guns at the time. Its appearance marked an important turning point in the history of firearms and had a profound impact on the development of modern weapons and military thought.
The Gatling gun came to China in 1874. The Jinling Machinery Bureau later imitated and improved it, producing a unique "Chinese-style" Gatling gun mounted on a cart that could be operated by one person (the "Egyptian version" was mounted on a camel, both of which were very national in character), leaving a strong mark in the history of world firearms development.
In the 19th century, Gatling continued to improve his rotary machine gun, and successively launched the 1862, 1871, 1874, 1883, and 1893 models. The main improvement direction was to improve the reliability of the ammunition supply system, reduce weight, and increase the rate of fire. But just when the Gatling machine gun developed the manual machine gun to its peak, the emergence of the automatic weapon - the Maxim machine gun put the Gatling machine gun into a dilemma. Starting in 1884, automatic weapons using automatic principles such as barrel recoil, gas-operated, free-bolt, and semi-free-bolt were invented one after another. Compared with these single-barrel automatic weapons, the advantages of the Gatling rotary machine gun no longer exist, but the disadvantages are becoming more and more obvious. For example, the Gatling gun was bulky compared to the single-barrel machine gun, and the corresponding transportation capacity was limited, making it inconvenient to maneuver; the Gatling gun's high rate of fire was not very meaningful for the battlefield conditions at the time, and the power of the lightweight and compact automatic machine gun was enough to provide support for the infantry; in addition, the newly appeared fixed metal shell ammunition was expensive, and the high rate of fire would cause a lot of waste, etc. However, the army of Qing China did not understand these at the time. Both types of machine guns were equipped in the troops, and they were both organized into the artillery team. This "tactics" of using machine guns and artillery together, which was "invented" by someone, once made Sun Gang, a half-baked military fan, stunned for a long time.
And now, the establishment of the Beiyang Special Attack Force gave him an extremely bold idea.
That is, install a Gatling gun on a hot air balloon.
Hot air balloons are not unfamiliar to Chinese people. As early as the 58th year of Emperor Qianlong's reign (1793), the British government sent Macartney to Beijing with a large delegation to meet Emperor Qianlong. In order to impress the great Chinese emperor and promote Sino-British exchanges, the delegation selected the world's latest inventions at that time. Macartney invited Qianlong's favorite ministers and officials to watch the performance of hot air balloons taking off. Unfortunately, this official was extremely corrupt and dismissed the new invention. In addition, Qianlong thought that "the Celestial Empire is rich in resources and has everything." The Celestial Empire "never values ingenuity," so the monarch and his officials unanimously rejected the British request for mutual trade (known in history as the "Dialogue of the Deaf"), and also closed the door for China to exchange the latest scientific and technological inventions of human society.
When the British bring their steam gunboats to China next time, and China becomes a "high-tech weapons testing ground" for Western powers, will Emperor Qianlong and his ministers cry or laugh if they know about this?
Since Sun Gang had been staying with the "monsters" of the Beiyang Military Intelligence Department and the Special Attack Team these days, he had a very deep understanding of the incredible "creative" ability of the inventor named "Find Passbook" who put dirty jokes in the music box for his beloved wife.
This man's enthusiasm for machinery and new inventions was simply crazy. When Sun Gang saw the strange things in his house, he almost thought he had returned to the old era.
That day, this guy surnamed Zhao accidentally saw the magnetic mines used by the underwater special attack team last time, and he suddenly had an idea. He called a few Beiyang ordnance personnel to discuss it together, and they made a bunch of palm-sized "mini mines" to be used to "break doors, destroy windows, blow up houses and burn enemies, which is extremely flexible." As a result, the Beiyang special attack team immediately began to equip and practice, and for many days the training ground was "full of thunder, and all the troops were shocked." This "invention" reminded Sun Gang and reminded the grenades and hand grenades of later generations. He immediately told his idea to Zhao Chunze, and this weirdo immediately began to improve it according to his requirements, and he made it a few days later. When Sun Gang looked at these "grenades" that looked very much like "Coca-Cola" cans, he couldn't help but want to laugh.
This is how China’s first modern hand grenade was made!
Hand grenades have a long history. In fact, the earliest hand grenades should be said to have been invented by the Chinese. However, in China, which focused more on literature than science, hand grenades gradually declined . In Europe, hand grenades loaded with black powder appeared in the 15th century. At that time, they were mainly used for fortress defense and prisons. In the mid-17th century, some European countries equipped their elite troops with field grenades and called the soldiers who were specially trained to use this special weapon "grenadiers." In the 19th century, with the rapid development of guns and other weapons and the reduction of urban siege operations, hand grenades once fell into silence. They were used on a large scale on the battlefield during the later Russo-Japanese War.
Because of this little butterfly, Sun Gang, he now has no way of knowing whether the Russo-Japanese War will break out in the future.
After "Zhao Cuan Book" invented the grenade, he became " out of control ". He turned some common things around him into terrible "bombs", such as inkstones, brushes, pocket watches, clocks and even hats. When people around him knew about it, they all kept a distance from him, fearing that he would accidentally "explode" them. He repeatedly assured everyone that all the "explosives" around him had "safety devices" that others could not open and were "absolutely safe". However, no matter how much he "assured", no one dared to walk with him (Ma Yue called him "Hot Tang Man", which reminded Sun Gang of a classic electronic game "Bomberman" in later generations.)
After several days of test firing and discussions with ordnance personnel, Sun Gang decided to install an improved Gatling machine gun on the hot air balloon invented by "Zhaocunzhi".
Sun Gang chose the Gatling gun instead of the Maxim machine gun after careful consideration. The water-cooled Maxim heavy machine gun is not only heavy, but also requires multiple people to operate. Not only does it have a slow rate of fire, but the barrel will "boil" after firing 500 rounds. The barrel must be replaced or wait for the barrel to cool down, otherwise it will kill itself. The multi-barreled Gatling gun is better in these aspects.
On this day, thanks to the efforts of military workers, China's first "air force" - the Beiyang Special Attack Team Balloon Team was born.
The hot air balloon troops equipped with six-barreled Gatling machine guns performed "well" indeed. Seeing the erratic hot air balloon pouring down bullets from the sky, Lin Taiceng, Zhang Wenxuan and Xu Bangdao who came to watch were all very surprised. However, in Sun Gang's opinion, the performance of this "armed hot air balloon" was not very good. Due to the unstable flying state of the hot air balloon and the recoil problem of the Gatling machine gun, it was not easy for the "balloon soldiers" to aim, and the hot air balloon's ammunition capacity was also limited. The hot air balloon itself was also extremely vulnerable to attack and could not be used to support front-line operations. Reconnaissance and night attacks were more effective. But for the conservative Qing Dynasty, it was a miracle to have this "arms" at all.
He never imagined to what extent his "creativity" would change the course of the war.
Sun Gang's "invention" reminded Lin Taizeng and others, and they also ordered several hot air balloons, but not to support infantry combat, but to provide reconnaissance for the troops.
Lin Taizeng said in his report to Ding Ruchang, the governor-general of Zhili and minister of Beiyang: "Hot air balloons can be used to carry soldiers and braves to look down, and all mountains and rivers, ships in the sea, and camps and defenses can be seen at a glance. It is indeed a powerful tool for spying on the enemy's positions. The Germans were also amazed and convinced." He suggested that this small "invention" be promoted vigorously in the army. However, such a small "invention" could not be implemented due to the obstruction of the diehards in the court. Ding Ruchang had to order it to be "trialed" in the Beiyang Navy and Beiyang Guards, and "promoted after practicing in battle."
Sun Gang didn't care when he found out about it, because this was within his expectations.
Wait a little longer.
Because, this little butterfly of his will soon stir up an unprecedented "political storm" in the Qing court!
