"The History of Guns in the Great Qian Empire": Excerpts:

"In the history of the Daqian Empire's armament and manufacture of light weapons from modern times to the present, the machine gun is undoubtedly the most brilliant chapter. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 Yoshizhe Hayashi, the founder of the Empire's new navy, appealed to his fascination with automata to weapon-building, and worked tirelessly to extract technology patents from top European and American inventors, albeit sometimes by undignified means. ”

"His first result was a Gatling rotary machine gun. The Empire's first self-built steam gunboat, the Evergreen, carried three of the original models, and during its sea trials, it dealt a terrible blow to the pirates that were rampant off the coast of Fujian Province. But according to the French advisers who were on board the ship at the time, this remarkable achievement was actually extremely dangerous. The steam-gunboat, which had a deep draft, was busy chasing the pirates when it crashed headlong into the reef-strewn shoal, its hull tilted badly to the left, and both guns were rendered useless. The speedboats of the Qianguo pirates immediately surrounded them on all sides, showing no less ferocity than the Barbary pirates. However, the 'Evergreen' did not repeat the mistake of the 'Philadelphia' in the harbor of Tripoli and waited for death. Lin commanded sailors to fight back with Gatling guns mounted in masts, and within a quarter of an hour, 13 pirate speedboats were sunk or destroyed, killing no fewer than 100 pirates. All this was done with three Gatling machine guns. And at the moment the inventor of this machine gun, patent holder Richard . Jordan. Gatling, however, was worried about the sale of his machine gun. Confused and angry when he found out that Lin had used his invention to win him military exploits and honors, he rushed to Fuzhou, Qianguo, to try to get a plausible explanation. Prior to that, no foreign arms manufacturer had sold Gatling guns to Qianguo. ”

How Lin made the first Gatling hand-cranked machine gun is still debated. To be sure, he must have learned about Gatlin's invention through Westerners in China, and gathered a lot of information. Because Gatling has been constantly promoting his machine gun since 9062, revealing many details of construction and manufacturing technology. A review of the various archival records of the empire reveals that Lin's hand-cranked rotary tube machine gun was a complete patchwork of goods. In 9065, Zeng Bohan, the governor of Liangjiang, ordered a batch of Springfield Type 9065 breech rifles from the United States to equip his Hunan army. However, when the first orders arrived in Shanghai, it was found that they had been refurbished with rifles already used by the Union Army in the civil war, so subsequent orders were cancelled. These 100 rifles, 4,000 rounds of .58 caliber Miller rim fire bullets, have been left in the Nanjing armory and no one cares. Lin obtained the rifles through his family's special relationship with Zeng Bohan, removed the barrels and firing pins, and pieced together the earliest batch of Gatling-style machine guns with parts machined by the shipyard. The reliability of these homemade machine guns was undoubtedly questionable, nor were the .58 Miller edge-firing shells, and by the time Dr. Gatling arrived, their manufacture had been discontinued. ”

"Richard. Dr. Gatlin met with the U.S. Consul in Fuzhou prior to his visit to Lin. Undoubtedly, he was trying to use the U.S. consul to pressure Lin and other officials to pay compensation for the infringement of his patents. However, Dr. Gatlin, who was already in debt, eventually changed his mind and sold the patent for the hand-cranked machine gun to Lin. Since then, all Gatling-style hand-cranked machine guns produced in Fuzhou have been given the name of 'Lin-Gatling' machine guns. ”

"The first mass-produced version, also known as the Type 9071 Lin-Gatling machine gun, was produced by the gun factory of the Harbour Administration Company in Mawei, Fuzhou. The munitions company, which would become famous, was still a small workshop attached to the shipyard at the time, and its production capacity was quite limited, so the barrels and firing pins of the first mass-produced machine guns were imported from Remington. The Type 9071 Lin-Gatling machine gun had 10 barrels and fired .50-70 center-fire rifle rounds. Hayashi's mechanical design talent is evident in the fact that he designed a cartridge for the machine gun that rotated synchronously with the bolt whirlwind, which could initially hold 200 rounds of .50-70 rounds. If you shake the handle at full speed, 20 seconds is enough to wipe out a spring. This type of ammunition feeding is much superior to the original gravity ammunition feeder. ”

"The 9071 machine gun was designed entirely for the navy, but the army generals of the Daqian Empire also rushed to order this 'gun as fast and violent as thunder and lightning'. The Gatling gun mounted on a wheelbarrow soon became the most eccentric and interesting sight in the eyes of Westerners in Qianguo. However, Lin's small factory could not meet the needs of the army generals even if it was running at full capacity, so they turned to Colt to buy .58 caliber and 1-inch Gatling machine guns, which were the models that the U.S. Army was equipped with at the time. The 1-inch Colt machine gun was particularly sought after by some Imperial Army generals, who saw it as a light artillery. Of course, after the introduction of the 1.57-inch (40 mm) Harb-Cays machine gun at the Mawei factory, the 1-inch Gatling machine gun was soon lost to the U.S. Army. ”

In order to ensure his own interests, Lin Yizhe simply transferred the concession for the production of the Lin-Gatling machine gun to Schneider in Le Quisso, France, because of its close commercial cooperation with the Fuzhou Shipyard Company. Schneider quickly brought this excellent weapon to the world. For example, in 9082, the British army that invaded the Suez Canal Zone defeated the army of Arabi Pasha at Taylor Kebir, and the British discovered that the Type 9071 Lin-Gatling machine gun captured from the Egyptians was all Schneider's product. ”

"Strangely enough, the French Army turned a blind eye to the Lyn-Gatling machine guns produced in their own country, and devoted all their enthusiasm and energy to improving the long-outdated Lifei platoon gun, which had turned the French Army into victory in 9070 against the Prussian elite. However, the Lifei Platoon has fared extremely badly in the sandy North Africa. During the occupation of Tunisia in 9081, some French officers had to buy machine guns made by Schneider at their own expense to equip their regiments, as the latter could work reliably even in harsh desert environments. The French Navy was interested in the Lin-Gatling gun, but ultimately opted for the Haggais five-barreled gun, also from Fuzhou. ”

"After the failure of its reckless invasion of the island in 9074, Japan was forced to pay high war reparations. A considerable part of the indemnity was appropriated by the imperial court for naval expenses and the construction of shipyards. The Guns & Guns Factory of the Harbour Master's Bureau was finally able to be separated from the shipyard. Their Type 9076 Lin-Gatling machine gun won a medal and worldwide attention at the Philadelphia World's Fair in the same year. The 9076 reduced barrel to 5 barrels and 90 pounds in weight, was mounted on a simple but sturdy tripod for rapid rotation and strafing in all directions. The reduced barrel of the machine gun was able to run faster, reaching a steady rate of fire of 700 rounds per minute, and the newly designed cartridge plate increased the ammunition capacity to 400 rounds. The tripod of the machine gun also added a locking device that fixed the gun at a certain pitch angle when firing, because the Harbour Master's Gun Factory specially developed a high-power, recoil-heavy .50 caliber cartridge for the Type 9076 machine gun. ”

"The ammunition equipped with the 9076 Lin-Gatling gun was modified from the .50-90 Sharps Cattle Hunting Round, with a longer 3.25-inch cartridge case and a 140-grlet black powder capacity. It was so powerful that during a public show in the United States, a shooter operated a machine gun and fired a rapid fire to interrupt a thick beech plant 400 yards away. Of particular note are the machine-gun rounds used by the Navy equipped with special armor-piercing warheads, which were actually hard steel cores wrapped in lead coats, exposing hardened tips sufficient to penetrate the weak hulls of torpedo boats at a distance of 600 yards. ”

"The Imperial Army and Navy used the machine gun as a powerful weapon at first, i.e., as a supplement to the firepower of field artillery. In the Battle of Taiwan in 9074, the Imperial Marines used the Type 9071 machine gun to successfully suppress the artillery positions of the Japanese army. However, this result was achieved under special conditions, the most important point being that the Japanese expeditionary force only brought mountain artillery with a relatively close range. Western military observers were more aware that the heavy fire from the Lin-Gatling guns easily contained the Japanese counterattack. When the desperate Japanese soldiers, wielding rifles and sabers, rushed forward in a frenzy before the destruction and tried to engage in white-knuckle combat, some officers and soldiers of the Imperial Huai Army fled from their positions in fear. However, the marines of the shipmaster fleet set up their Type 9071 machine guns and opened fire, and in the end not a single Japanese soldier could get within 100 yards of the Qianguo army position alive. ”

"The new Imperial Army, which began construction in 9080, hired many experienced Western officers for training, and they passed on many valuable lessons from the European theater to the new generation of Imperial Army officers, such as the positive and negative experience of using the Lifei platoon gun in the Franco-Prussian War. As a result, each infantry regiment of the new Imperial Army had a Lin-Gatling machine gun company attached to it as direct support for the infantry in battle. Some independent heavy artillery regiments also had machine gun batteries attached to them to defend themselves against enemy infantry or cavalry attacks. Only in the trench confrontation of the Russo-Russian War and World War I was machine guns used for a time as a long-range firing tactic similar to field artillery, but by that time the old hand-cranked machine guns that fired black powder bullets had largely been withdrawn from the battlefield. ”

"The Shanghai Arsenal also designed a Type 9076 machine gun for the defense of the fortress, which differed from the ordinary Lin-Gatling machine gun in that it was not shaken by the handle at the end of the gun, but by a connecting rod device connecting the bolt and the pedal on the gun carriage, and the shooter operated the machine gun as if he were driving a bicycle. At least 300 of this peculiar machine gun were built. ”

"With the exception of the characteristic pedal machine gun, the Lin-Gatling machine gun did not produce any major technological advances in the nearly two decades after its invention. The stagnation was not broken until 9093, when Richard. Dr. Gatlin did away with the rocking handle he invented, replacing it with a DC electric motor instead of a foot pedal. Tests conducted at the Shanghai Arsenal showed that the electrically driven Gatling gun took less than 16 seconds to complete 400 rounds. In 9095, the rotary machine gun, replaced with a higher revving and more reliable electric motor, reached an astonishing rate of fire of 3000 rounds per minute in tests. The surprised technocrats also found a number of problems. The motor mechanism runs too fast, and the latching device can even pull off the bottom edge of the cartridge case. The Lin-style cartridge was difficult to meet the needs of the ammunition supply at a high rate of fire, so the ammunition feeding mechanism was redesigned to use the canvas cartridge belt invented by Maxim, but after the high-speed launch, the cartridge belt was pulled and deformed, and even directly torn off. Last but not least, the weight of the electric Gatling was greatly increased, and the excessively high rate of fire did not seem to make much sense in real combat, especially in the era when Maxim and Browning introduced more lightweight and reliable automatic machine guns. ”

"The Shanghai Arsenal experimentally created a small number of Type 9096 electric Gatling guns. It has 10 barrels, which can be adjusted by adjusting the motor speed to choose different rates of fire, firing 8mm Lebor rifle rounds filled with smokeless gunpowder, all delivered to the Navy and equipped with light mine-struck ships as rapid-fire weapons. The user manual prepared by the Shanghai Arsenal clearly states that the canvas cartridge belt it dispenses can only be used once, and repeated reloading is not allowed. There is no official version of how these machine guns behaved in the war against Japan the following year. However, the brave and capable Captain Cai Tinggan, who is familiar to Western readers, commanded his destroyer "Feihong", and despite running out of torpedoes and 75mm shells, he still approached the Japanese transport ship "Saikyo Maru", and the Type 9096 rotary machine gun fired fiercely at the deck and bridge, and then sent sailors to jump into the gang. It didn't take much effort for the sailors on the 'Hikon' to capture the 'Saikyo Maru', as the Japanese sailors on deck who tried to resist had been swept away by a terrible torrent of bullets, and the remains were so fragmented that even a few intact bodies could not be found. ”

Other than that, the Type 9096 Gatling gun does not seem to have achieved a particularly noteworthy record. Navy officers complained that electrically driven machine guns were far less reliable than the old hand-cranked Lin-Gatling guns. After the canvas belt expands and deforms, it is easy to get stuck in the high-speed ammunition feeding mechanism and is torn into several pieces. Electric motors and power lines are constantly plagued by short-circuit failures on wet, often swell-covered destroyer decks and bridges. ”

"Dr. Gatlin spent his last days working to improve his inventions. He found inspiration in a Browning-style machine gun system, which used the gas energy of the cartridge to drive the barrel to rotate. The automatic rotary machine gun, with the electric motor removed, was a third lighter than the Type 9096 machine gun. However, the new machine gun 9100-9101 failed to pass the tests of the Imperial Navy and Army, because the power generated by the gunpowder gas was insufficient, which led to frequent malfunctions of the action mechanism, and often stopped firing inexplicably. Dr. Gatlin tried to sell the U.S. Army a new automatic machine gun, but received no response. Disappointed, he returned to the United States and died at his daughter's home. ”

"The Gatling rotary machine gun did not end with the death of the inventor. In 9114, the engineers of Jiangnan Shipbuilding Company devised a new scheme: a hydraulic power motor replaced the electric motor to drive the machine gun, a metal chain replaced the easily deformed canvas cartridge belt, and the rate of fire was reduced to 2,000 rounds per minute. Several measures made it much more reliable than the previous automatic Gatling guns. The hydraulically powered, six-barreled Gatling machine gun was officially adopted by the Navy in 9115, firing 7.92 mm Mauser rounds. Initially it was seen as a weapon against zeppelins, but in fact, the main users of the Type 9115 rotary machine gun were the Jiangnan three-engine water patrol aircraft of the Navy and Coast Guard. During the four years of patrolling and assault, countless Allied submarines, armed merchant ships, and camouflaged assault ships trembled under the rain of bullets and bullets it poured. ”

But the largest user of aviation machine guns, the Air Force, which was founded during the world war, has always rejected this particular high-speed machine gun. The Type 9115 Gatling gun was too cumbersome and complex for single-engine combat, and it was difficult to install a firing coordination device synchronized with the propeller. But there are exceptions. The latest model of the 9117 G-1 twin-engine attack aircraft was about to leave the factory for front-line troops, but due to production delays, it was not possible to get the main weapon that was ordered: a 37 mm Browning automatic cannon mounted on the nose. As a last resort, the Air Force chose the Type 9115 Gatling gun to replace the cannon of the first 410 attack aircraft. The machine-gun G-1 attack aircraft received a modification for this purpose, adding a hydraulic pipe under the pilot's cockpit, and the hydraulic pump was powered by engine No. 2. ”

"The performance of the machine-gun G-1 attack aircraft in actual combat has been praised by the army units. Blazing machine-gun fire was enough to sweep across the entire trench and cover the artillery positions. Ground crews sometimes mixed armor-piercing, high-explosive and tracer incendiary rounds in the chain, a combination that was particularly suitable for attacking Allied armoured vehicles that were just emerging at the time. The Type 9115 Gatling gun has achieved at least one confirmed air-to-air success. On the evening of May 11, 9118, a G-1 attack plane returning from a mission spotted a German aircraft moving at a low altitude, and the pilot immediately dived down and spilled all the remaining ammunition from the nose machine gun on the target. The Albatross C.VII reconnaissance bomber crashed behind the Allied front, killing the German pilot, Captain Jung von Graff, and the observer, Sergeant Jürgen Zmayermann. ”

"The Model 9115 Gatling was withdrawn from active service in the Imperial Navy and Air Force shortly after the end of the war, and it did not have any foreign users. The Browning aviation machine gun was quite mature by the end of the war. A twin Browning 7.92mm machine gun already had a higher rate of fire than the 9115 Gatling gun, but it was much lighter. The Gatling rotary machine gun was temporarily removed from the military stage of the Empire. It won't be until the 9060s or so on. (To be continued.) )