When Li Chunjing, commander of the re-established Second Army, heard about the front line of the heavy artillery battalion, he also went to watch the live-fire training with great interest, but he did not come forward to watch, and even a group of high-ranking generals of the Second Army who accompanied him to inspect did not approach.

Why, because this thing is powerful, but it's also dangerous.

Now the technology of howitzers is not mature, and it is very dangerous when fired, if the fuse of the shell is ignited, and the fuse of the propellant is not ignited smoothly, there is only one result: explode!

Therefore, the engineer sent by the Zhaoqing Arsenal for technical guidance said that the operation of this kind of artillery must be very cautious, and even said that when the Zhaoqing Arsenal carried out research and development tests in the early days, there were several accidents, and there was even a bombing accident, and the test gun crew was reimbursed on the spot, two people were killed on the spot, and seven or eight people were injured.

Therefore, it is specially emphasized to the military that this artillery must not pursue the rate of fire, otherwise there may be mistakes in actual combat, and once there is a mistake, it will be the end of the explosion.

The engineer of the Zhaoqing Arsenal even bluntly said: The gunner who controls this heavy howitzer is dancing on the tip of the knife, and the slightest carelessness will lead to a catastrophe.

This is also the reason why the Zhaoqing Arsenal has not developed a long-barreled howitzer at present, because it is too dangerous when fired.

Although the short-barreled artillery is also dangerous, as long as it is operated properly and there are no mistakes, the safety can still be guaranteed.

After being busy and inspecting it many times, a major in charge of directing the live-fire test said to Li Chunjing: "My lord, you are ready to fire!" ”

At this time, Li Chunjing, who had the rank of lieutenant general on his shoulder, said: "Since you are ready, let's start, let's take a good look at the power of this heavy howitzer!" ”

Li Chunjing said, and immediately the major said: "Obey!" ”

And it didn't take long for the artillery position in front of him to light the fuse of a twenty-four-pound heavy howitzer, and then, everyone saw a cloud of white smoke from the thick and thick, but the extremely short barrel was freed up a thick white smoke, and at the same time, they also heard a loud noise!

Just listening to this loud noise, it shocked this group of generals, the sound of this cannon is simply earth-shattering, much stronger than those field artillery, even the army's largest nine-pound field gun, compared with one is far inferior!

Isn't this momentum big, this kind of heavy howitzer developed and equipped by the Tang Dynasty was originally specially prepared for siege, so it needs huge power!

At the same time, due to the relatively small explosive power of black powder, in order to obtain a more ideal explosive power, a large charge is required, and a large charge will make the shell larger, larger and heavier.

At the same time, because of the short barrel, the energy of the propellant will be greatly wasted, so in order for this shell to hit a long enough distance, more propellant is needed.

Heavy howitzers of the same caliber, that is, mortars, often require twice as much as the propellant of an ordinary cannon, but even then their range is somewhat inferior.

At the same time, the increase of propellant, in order to allow the barrel to withstand high bore pressure, in the case of material technology is not up to standard, it can only be passively thickened barrel.

Therefore, the barrel of a mortar gun is often twice or even three times that of an ordinary gun of the same caliber.

These limitations, as well as the design, led to the birth of the heavy short-barreled howitzer, that is, the mortar gun!

At the same time, because the shells still use the arquebus fuse, they cannot be used in long-barreled artillery, and the power of black powder is limited, so it is of little practical value to use in mortar guns with too small mouths.

Even if it is a small-caliber mortar, it usually refers to a twelve-pound mortar of this level, and a twenty-four-pound or even a thirty-two-pound mortar can only be regarded as a medium-caliber mortar, and only a mortar of more than sixty-four pounds can barely be regarded as a large-caliber mortar.

However, even so, the army is also preparing to purchase a large number of howitzers of the two levels of nine catties and fourteen catties, but they are not intended for heavy artillery siege use, but are prepared to serve as curved fire support firepower for infantry.

Because don't look at the caliber of howitzers, but in fact their weight is very light, a fourteen-pound howitzer, not counting the base, weighs only a mere one hundred and thirty kilograms, and because it is cast in iron, its cost is quite low, if it is mass-produced, the price of this artillery will not exceed fifty taels, which is roughly equivalent to the price of ten rifles!

And the nine-pound howitzer is only a few dozen kilograms, and the price is even lower!

In fact, the reason for restricting the large-scale use of small and medium-caliber mortars by the Tang Army is not the cost of the artillery itself, but the cost of ammunition.

The current Datang Army is still studying how to better equip these mortars, but before that, they plan to solve the fuze problem first, and the current firing mode is too dangerous, even the most professional and strictly trained artillerymen dare not say that they can guarantee the safety of firing.

But then again, if the fuze problem is solved, then the Tang Army will not need to be equipped with this small and medium-caliber short-barreled mortar gun, because they can completely stuff these grenades into the existing long-barreled artillery, so as to obtain better actual combat effectiveness, and at that time, the Tang Dynasty will officially enter the era of flowering bombs!

However, these Li Chunjing naturally didn't have the heart to think about it, that was something that the engineers of the Privy Council Ordnance Department and the Ministry of Industry should consider, and what he Li Chunjing should consider was how to make good use of these twelve big guys to break the turtle shell of the Ming army!

If you can use these big guys to break the turtle shell in Nanchang in the autumn and winter offensive, I'm afraid no one will dare to make irresponsible remarks about their promotion to lieutenant general!

As long as you win Nanchang, your military exploits can fully match the rank of lieutenant general!

He wants to make his lieutenant general deserve it!

Li Chunjing was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general when he was appointed commander of the Second Army a month ago, and he was also the second lieutenant general in the Tang Dynasty's division, and the first was naturally Hao Bonian.

Hao Bonian was promoted two months earlier than he was promoted, in May.

Li Chunjing also knows very well why His Majesty promoted himself to the military rank, in order to let himself suppress a group of proud generals under the Second Army, which is also full of talents.

There is Wang Danxu, the veteran who was the first to follow the dragon, and Brigadier General Gu Shizhong, the commander of the Fourth Mixed Regiment, who performed extremely eye-catching in the battles of Chenzhou and Guiyangzhou.

During the reform of the provisional regiment, Li Xuan added a first-class military rank in the army and navy, and added the rank of brigadier general between colonel and major general, because although the scale of the Tang Dynasty Wang Division gradually expanded, and Li Xuan wanted to strictly control the number of people above the rank of major general, the scale of the mixed regiment was almost the size of the previous infantry brigade, and it was not appropriate to use the rank of colonel, so the rank of brigadier general was added.

Most of the other regiment commanders and so on are also veterans with outstanding military achievements.

And although Li Chunjing is also highly qualified, he is not as good as Hao Bonian, when Hao Bonian was promoted to lieutenant general before, no one said even a word of gossip, because Hao Bonian's military exploits were there.

However, when Li Chunjing was promoted to lieutenant general, it caused a round of battles, because Li Chunjing had led the Fourth Infantry Division to toss around western Guangxi, western Guizhou, and eastern Yunnan in the past year, and had not fought a large-scale battle.

However, this does not affect Li Xuan's appreciation of him, Li Xuan has admired Li Chunjing more in the past, but he also felt that Li Chunjing was more radical in terms of tactics, but he led the Fourth Infantry Division and the Ming army in the southwest direction to fight for a year, and after drilling the ravines for a year, his tactical style became stable.

Radical with stability, this is what Li Xuan wants to see!

The war task in the Jiangxi direction is very heavy, if you want to pry open the turtle shell of the Ming army, Wang Danxu, a veteran with insufficient groundbreaking, is not enough, Fang Xitong, a person who can only think about pleasing himself, is not good, and Hao Bonian wants to continue to support the overall situation in Huguang, so after thinking about it, Li Xuan still chose Li Chunjing.

Since you have chosen to use Li Chunjing, it is natural to give him support, and a lieutenant general rank is the best support!

When Li Chunjing led the Second Army to the north to prepare for the war, Li Xuan did not forget to provide him with all kinds of support, first of all, the establishment of the Fourth Supplementary Brigade in the direction of Ganzhou, the role of this supplementary brigade is the same as other supplementary brigades, it is to provide new recruits for the front-line troops, and maintain the situation by the way.

Although military spending is tight, this year, with the control of the southern part of Jiangxi and the area south of Huguang Hengyang, it has provided a lot of taxes and soldiers for the Tang Dynasty, coupled with the actual strategic needs, it is imperative to set up the fourth supplementary brigade.

According to the current plan of the Datang Army, the supplementary brigades are combined with the provincial recruit training camps.

At present, the training time of the recruit battalion is still one month in the past, but it is also stipulated that after the recruits have completed the basic physical fitness and discipline training, they must go to the provinces to supplement the brigade to continue the training, so as to ensure at least three months of complete training time.

According to this system, the existing three supplementary brigades were not enough, so Li Xuan set up a supplementary brigade in each province to train new recruits and shoulder the task of rear ammunition pressure.

Of the previous three supplementary brigades, the first supplementary brigade was in Huguang, the second supplementary brigade was in Guizhou, and the third supplementary brigade was in Guangxi, so Li Xuan established two new supplementary brigades, namely the fourth supplementary brigade in Jiangxi and the newly established fifth supplementary brigade in Guangdong.

The supplementary brigade and the provincial recruit battalions are combined with each other, mainly to shoulder the task of training recruits at the middle and high levels, to provide qualified recruits for the front-line troops, and at the same time to shoulder the task of rear ammunition pressure.

With the replenishment brigade, the front-line troops can fight with peace of mind without worrying about the replenishment of recruits and the rebellion in the rear!