my scientific age

Chapter 397 Prototype gun test!
History, quietly frozen.

From sulfuric acid to nitrocellulose, from iron ore to blast furnace iron, from traditional iron smelting to oxygen-blown furnace steelmaking, from a few pliers to a complete set of mechanical processing equipment, a total of millions of silver dollars of capital investment, the basic industrial framework built from scratch, tens of thousands of people's efforts and struggle for more than a hundred days and nights, all of which finally created today's "truth".

The truth belonging to China was born.

At this moment, gazing at the heavy artillery that exudes the beauty of war weapons, Yu Hua's heart is filled with pride. He really did it, and together with his predecessors, he created a miracle that is unique in human history.

"Go and ask the leaders to come in and tell them that the cannon is ready." Yu Hua stood still, came to his senses, smiled, and said to the nearest soldier.

The soldier suppressed his excitement, nodded immediately, turned around and ran quickly out of the workshop to inform the leaders and others.

Upon hearing the news that the Red Peony Howitzer had completed final assembly, the atmosphere suddenly became lively. Smiles appeared on everyone's faces, and without hesitation, they quickly walked towards the heavy artillery assembly workshop.

"Hello, leader." Yu Hua came to the door of the workshop to greet everyone and greeted them one by one, his words full of respect.

This comes from respect in the heart.

The reason why the idea in my mind can be realized is inseparable from the support of the big guys in front of me. Without the help of the entire organization, let alone making heavy artillery, even making sulfuric acid would be impossible.

"Yu Hua, thank you for your hard work." The leader at the first position looked at Yu Hua with bloodshot eyes, feeling deeply moved, and said softly.

The others didn't say anything, but just stared at Yu Hua silently. The current changes in the base were closely related to the young man in front of them.

First, Mr. Zhang San secretly helped, then the genius Yu Hua and Tsinghua professor Zhuang Qianding fully supported, Yu's seven-tower technology, rotary coking technology, oxygen top-blowing steelmaking technology, electroslag remelting technology...

It is precisely because of these cutting-edge technologies that the Shaanxi-Gansu base area has been transformed from an extremely poor situation to its current state. Black powder grenades have become TNT grenades, reloaded bullets have become brand new bullets, homemade muskets have become formally produced on the assembly line, and captured mortars and cannons have become today's independently produced. Everything has changed. The era when we were once backward and relied entirely on captured weapons is gone forever!

The changes are so great that it feels like a dream, but it is so real.

"This is what I should do. Please come over here." Yu Hua said modestly without any further delay, motioning everyone to move forward.

The leader nodded, and everyone followed Yu Hua to the front of the Red Peony prototype cannon.

The huge 105mm caliber muzzle, the slender 2415mm long barrel, the black and metallic gun body, the conical metal sleeve covering the barrel, the parallel double-chamber hydraulic recoil brake, the stable and reliable mechanical elevation and steering mechanism, the heavy breech block, the large-size off-road load-bearing tires designed specifically for the northern region, the iconic slewing bearing and the triangular auxiliary hoe, all the elements make up this unique heavy artillery.

The shooting range is 360 degrees, there is only one like this.

Everyone stared at the prototype cannon quietly, their eyes lost in thought, as if they had seen some peerless beauty and were unable to forget it for a long time.

nice!
So beautiful!
The leaders had some knowledge about the prototype gun before and had some resistance at this time, but this gentleman and a group of troop commanders saw the Red Peony prototype gun in the true sense for the first time.

The thick muzzle gives it an unparalleled visual impact, and the solid gun mount like a strong man far exceeds any 75mm mountain gun seen before.

Just one glance and the commanders of the troops present had forgotten the charm of Miss Qiwu.

The 105mm howitzer, named after the red peony, the national flower of China, also has the feel of a Chinese cannon.

"This is the prototype of our Red Peony howitzer. It has now been assembled. Its main performance parameters are 105mm caliber, barrel length 23 times the caliber, 360° directional firing range, 75° to -7° elevation angle, maximum firing range 14 kilometers, maximum road towing speed of 40 kilometers per hour, and maximum field towing speed of 15 kilometers per hour. It takes about 8 minutes to change from traveling state to combat state."

Yu Hua explained in detail like a tour guide, introducing the main performance parameters of the prototype gun: "The conventional personnel are equipped with five people. If the situation is urgent, one person can complete the loading, aiming and shooting. The maximum rate of fire is 8 rounds per minute, the combat rate of fire is 6 rounds per minute, the continuous shooting time is about 150 rounds, and the barrel cools down for 20 minutes. In terms of ammunition, grenades and armor-piercing incendiary bombs are selected as conventional ammunition options."

The leader nodded in approval after hearing the words. The commanders of the troops also had no reaction. As the theoretical Party A, they were extremely satisfied with the Red Peony Howitzer and could not find any fault with it.

The only drawback may be its combat weight of 1.8 tons.

However, the Red Star tractor developed earlier made up for the lack of power of the heavy artillery machine. The off-road capability of the Red Star tractor far exceeded that of various types of traction military vehicles imported by Brother Zhongzheng. After all, this is a serious single-cylinder engine, and both its load-bearing capacity and off-road performance far exceed those of military vehicles of this era.

Leading in one place means leading everywhere.

Nowadays, people are in the standard state of "wild boars eating fine bran". Their understanding and importance of weapon performance parameters are not as good as in later generations. They only know one thing - the Red Peony Howitzer is very powerful.

To put it simply, it means hitting far, hitting accurately, and hitting fast, which in combination means - powerful.

"Team Leader Yu, why did the ammunition plan choose armor-piercing incendiary bombs? Isn't it a howitzer?" another gentleman asked curiously.

"Leader, because of the 23-caliber barrel, the launch trajectory is extremely straight, and the effective range is about 1500 meters. To a certain extent, it can take into account the needs of anti-tank operations and shoot vertical targets, armored targets and long-distance fixed targets, such as enemy tanks, bunkers, towers, etc. The 105mm armor-piercing incendiary projectile developed by the Military Industry Bureau adopts a traditional cap design, and the armor-piercing part is made of tungsten alloy. The internal hollow area is added with a thermite-based incendiary agent. The penetration depth is about 500mm at 110 meters, about 1000mm at 90 meters, and about 1500mm at 75 meters. The materials are all high-carbon homogeneous steel."

Yu Hua answered this question: "After penetrating the target, the thermite-based solid incendiary agent will immediately ignite, further damaging the internal structure of the armored target. Of course, this is a theoretical design indicator. Various types of shells have been successfully developed, but actual tests have not yet been carried out."

The Penetration-1 is the third ammunition model of the domestic 105mm ammunition system. It is based on the structure of the Detonation-1 shell. It is a complete shell type with a caliber of 105mm×380mm, a total weight of 16kg, an initial velocity of 580 meters per second, a warhead made of tungsten alloy material, and an aluminothermic-based incendiary agent. The theoretical effective penetration per kilometer reaches 90mm.

The penetration of the entire ammunition is not high in the world, but in today's anti-Japanese battlefield...

Sorry, the only way to describe it is invincible.

"My goodness, put the cannon flat?" The other gentleman was stunned for a moment when he heard this, and his eyes suddenly widened as he looked at the 105mm diameter muzzle. He could hardly imagine the scene of this cannon being put flat to hit the Japanese tanks.

105mm caliber howitzers are used to attack tanks...

The picture is too beautiful to imagine.

The commanders of the surrounding troops took a deep breath when they heard the words, and then they reacted and felt their blood boiling and heat rising to their heads, and they were extremely excited.

That's great, it happened in a second. With one shot, the Japanese tanks would be smashed into pieces and burned to ashes, right?

Armor-piercing incendiary bomb, what a cool name.

The leader asked, "What about the lethality of the grenade?"

"The high-explosive-1 grenade is designed with Soviet ammunition. The body material is high-phosphorus steel, the TNT charge is 2.8 kilograms, the theoretical absolute killing radius is 8 meters, and the effective killing radius is 20 meters." Yu Hua continued to answer.

"Okay, okay." The leader didn't know what to say. Whether it was the cannons or the ammunition, they were all very satisfactory.

The people around were mesmerized by what they heard, as if it was a dream.

Effective killing radius of 20 meters?
These are numbers they could never imagine.

"Leader, now that the prototype gun has been assembled, I would like to apply for a prototype gun test to conduct a systematic and practical test of the gun system and research and development ammunition." Yu Hua looked at his leader and said in a serious voice.

Since the prototype gun test is of great importance, it must be approved by the leadership before it can be carried out. This is the rule set previously.

The leader nodded without hesitation: "I agree."

(End of this chapter)