Greece’s Roman Road

Seeing everyone's puzzled expressions, Constantine explained: "This type of gun has a relatively high elevation angle, a short range, a fast rate of fire, and a small weight. In an emergency, it can be completely moved by infantry. , mainly used to accompany the infantry forward, as a support weapon for the infantry, especially suitable for the mountains of the Balkans"

Obviously, a mortar is also a kind of rapid-fire weapon. Compared with the large number of artillery with a rate of fire of about two rounds per minute at this time, the mortar with a fire rate of up to 20 rounds per minute is also a weapon that makes its own logistics personnel grit their teeth.

After Constantine intervened in the reorganization of the Greek army, the new-style rifles, rapid-fire guns, and mortars can be said to be the best in the world in terms of firepower, adhering to the concept of firepower supremacy.

As for the ammunition supply problem caused by the fast rate of fire, in fact, this was the least worry of Constantine.

Most of the previous wars in Europe were quick fixes, and no country wanted to wage a long-term war of attrition.

Especially in the Balkans, due to the weak industrial capacity, in the event of a war, the leaders of the armies of various countries aim to conduct a quick main battle, because almost all weapons and ammunition are purchased from outside, and the country’s independence is short-lived. The family is weak, and there is no material basis for sustaining a long-term war of attrition.

Therefore, in the future expected wars in the Balkans, such as the border conflict between Greece and Ottoman Turkey, in Constantine's view, the consumed weapons and ammunition are basically the strategic reserves of the two countries before the war, and the military command of the two countries Both will take the initiative to seek the enemy's main force and conduct a decisive battle.

That is to say, the war between countries in the Balkans, whether subjectively or in reality, does not allow the war to be prolonged.

In this case, the top military officials are more concerned about how to defeat the opponent in a decisive battle. Before that, they do not need to consider the issue of outsourcing weapons and ammunition.

As for after the decisive battle, the warring parties will either surrender or win. The overall situation has been decided. In order to maintain the balance of the situation, European countries will definitely intervene after the decisive battle is decided: the losing party will cede land and lose money, and the winning party will also Just take it when you see it.

Of course, because of the large number of rapid-fire weapons, the Greek army must have sufficient material reserves before the war. According to the estimated ammunition consumption level before the war, sufficient material preparations to maintain a short-term war are carried out.

Chaimiis and other senior military officials generally understand this, so they are not opposed to Constantine’s behavior of equipping a large number of rapid-fire weapons to help the Greek army gain an advantage in technical weapons, but the poor Greek government’s finances are going to waste again. .

"But Your Highness, I've never heard of any country's military equipping this kind of weapon before. I mean, can this kind of weird weapon be used in war?" Chaimiis asked.

A weapon that had never been heard of before, Chaimiis really doubted whether it was necessary to spend the funds that were not sufficient for research and development.

After all, the weapons equipped in the armies of various countries, such as artillery, rifles, etc., have been baptized by blood and rain in previous wars and have proved their value before they are widely recognized and equipped by various countries.

For example, artillery. In the final swan song of Constantinople, Mohammed II relied on Urban's huge artillery to deal with the impregnable and indestructible walls of Constantinople in the age of cold weapons. Since then Later, no one questioned whether artillery should be equipped in the army.

Now that Constantine suddenly demanded the design of an unprecedented weapon, Chaimiis, the military technical director, disagreed with the bottom of his heart.

"Mr. Chaimiis, from the Duke's drawings, the technical requirements for this kind of artillery are simple, and the cost may not be high, but if it's just research and development, it doesn't matter much." Scalloy looked at the drawings carefully and said to Chaimiis.

The reason why Constantine strongly demanded the development of mortars is because at the end of the 19th century, the development trend of weapon technology was the increasing firepower. Whether it was artillery or rifle, the rate of fire was increasing rapidly, let alone Maxim. The machine gun is such a big killer.

This situation leads to the fact that the defending side will gain a huge advantage after having complete fortifications. After all, the attacking side has to expose the flesh and blood of the soldiers to the enemy before the appearance of tanks and armored vehicles. In the hail of bullets, the casualty rate is higher than that of the defending side.

In this case, a paradox arises: it is impossible to win a war through defense, and the offense must face the attack of a defender with an unprecedented firepower density.

The commander of the army will be in conflict.

Therefore, Constantine hoped that the ability of the Greek army to attack fortifications would be enhanced, and in the expected and Ottoman Turkey campaign, it would increase the possibility of breaking the line of defense of the Ottoman army.

Although the army commanders of the Anergan countries all want a quick solution, once due to the existence of paradox, the war will inevitably fall into a stalemate and become protracted. There is no doubt that it will be even worse for Greece, which is a small country and a weak people.

Small-caliber mortars can be directly handed over to military platoons and squad-level grassroots organizations. After soldiers find obstacles that hinder their progress, such as machine gun positions, or simple fortifications~www.wuxiax.com~ can be used directly Mortar solution.

However, before the appearance of infantry accompanying weapons such as mortars, if the infantry encountered difficulties and wanted the support of the artillery, they had to ask the artillery for help, such as the divisional artillery regiment.

For example, people see such a scene: the soldier picks up the phone and calls out loudly: "Request fire support, request fire support, target XX, azimuth XX", and then the artillery covers the target area with firepower to solve the trouble for the infantry.

In the process of communication between the frontline soldiers and the artillery in the rear, it will obviously waste time and affect the efficiency of the artillery.

After soldiers are equipped with mortars, targets that are easy to destroy like machine gun positions do not need to waste the artillery's time at all, they can solve them directly.

Moreover, the elevation angle of the mortar is high, and some targets that cannot be hit by direct fire, such as trenches and enemies on the reverse slope, are more suitable for mortars.

It is precisely because of these factors that Constantine hoped that the Greek army could boldly break the rules and first equip the infantry with mortars at the grassroots level, so as to increase the attacking capability of the Greek army, so as to gain an advantage in subsequent battles and increase the winning rate.

Therefore, when he heard Chaimiis questioning the mortar, he patiently said: "The cost of this gun is not high, and there must be only a small amount of equipment in the early stage, so that the army can verify it in actual use, so what is the value of this gun? Let's wait and see."

"The structure of this type of artillery is relatively simple, and the machine factory can make a batch of samples soon," Scalloy said to the crowd.

After the meeting, Scarroy, who was instructed by Constantine, went to Germany to look for Conrad, a rapid-fire artillery engineer who was not valued in Germany. The expert group hoped to get inspiration from it and speed up the development of Greek rapid-fire artillery.

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