Chapter 158 Armstrong Cannon (First update, please subscribe)

Conflicts sometimes come so suddenly.

It's really a bit unexpected!

A war caused by a ship?

Zhu Xianhai's mood suddenly became a little helpless.

In addition to his helplessness, his brows were furrowed. This was precisely the inevitability of a certain development. The reaction of Buenos Aires now just proved one thing - they would not sit idly by and watch South China develop.

There is not much time left for Nanhua!

With a cigar between his fingers, Zhu Xianhai's brows were furrowed.

“It’s a bit difficult!”

Taking a puff of his cigar, he continued.

"After all, if we accept it, it means we are giving up the legal basis. After all... I have never admitted that this land belongs to Argentina! This is a no-man's land. Since it has no owner, whoever occupies it owns it. This is the legal basis for us to own this land!"

It’s the law!

The so-called "legal principles" are actually the rules of the game set by the imperialist powers. Is it important? It is very important.

"Although it is said that 'a hundred volumes of international law are not as good as a few cannons, and a few peace treaties are not as good as a basket of ammunition', what are the rules of the game in the world now? Whoever occupies it owns it. This basic legal principle will not be violated by any country, because it involves their own colonies and their core interests. Even if they do not agree with our occupation, they will solve it in another way instead of denying the legitimacy of our occupation."

What is the other way? Of course it is war, that is, military threats, but "legal principles" are related to their vital interests, and they will be very smart not to touch this principle. Otherwise, if France denies Britain's possession of Canada today and Britain denies France's possession of North Africa tomorrow, the international colonial order will be in chaos.

Those imperialist powers are all very cunning!

Why did the great powers sign treaties and formulate rule after rule? To put it bluntly, it was to "unite against foreign enemies" and to avoid internal friction among the great powers.

"Is this why the Lord asked me to learn the law of nations?"

Fang Zhanbo thought for a moment and said.

"The purpose of learning the law of nations is not to comply with it, but to use it to interact with the great powers within the rules of the law of nations. But what is the core of the law of nations? It is the strong using the law to oppress the weak!"

It's not just the international law. Even when you have a lawsuit in the country, the government has two mouths. They help the rich but not the poor, and the strong but not the weak.

justice?

This is the "justice" in the world!

"Alas, so-called public law is no more than that."

Qian Deshan sighed and said.

"It seems that we can't accept it!"

Nodding, Zhu Xianhai said.

"Legal principles... are the foundation of our existence here, but what is the foundation? We still have to rely on force!"

With the corners of his lips slightly raised, Zhu Xianhai looked into the distance.

"We can rely on the international law to occupy this land, but if we want to keep it, we must have enough power to defend it. Otherwise, in the end, we will only be making wedding clothes for others. The so-called "legal principles" are nothing more than providing a reasonable basis for others' military occupation - others can turn your "legal principles" into their own through military threats or invasions!"

"The survival of the fittest" is the essence of this era. The so-called "international order" and the so-called "public law morality" written in hundreds of volumes of international public law are essentially "the survival of the fittest". If you really think that "public law can protect the world", then you are really naive.

"Can……"

Sun Muli said from the side.

"My lord, the foreigners are sending us warships. They have strong ships and powerful guns. We don't have warships, so how can we stop them?"

As soon as he finished speaking, Fang Zhanbo said regretfully.

"Alas, what a pity for the Taiping. If it were still there, we wouldn't have to worry."

After he said that, everyone looked regretful, because that was an "ironclad ship"!

It's very strong.

But even if it was strong, what could it do? The ship had already been taken away by the Great Eastern and was on its way to China.

“No worries!”

Zhu Xianhai smiled.

"As long as there are factories, there's nothing to worry about! As for ships, if there are none, we can just build them!"

"But, my lord, can we make it now?"

"It's definitely too late to build a ship, but the same may not be true for the others!"

Zhu Xianhai smiled mysteriously.

What to make?

Of course it’s the cannon!

As early as when he just returned from Araucanía, Zhu Xianhai had already included cannon making in his plan. Although he had started casting cannons before that, they were just bronze smoothbore cannons, which could only be sold to the Taiping Army to make some money.

What kind of cannon is the future?

Of course, it was a breech-loading rifled cannon like the Armstrong cannon, but the Armstrong cannon was too expensive. The 110-pound Armstrong cannon installed in the coastal defense turrets actually cost thousands of pounds. Spending 1,500 pounds on such a cannon was simply paying an IQ tax.

Moreover, the seemingly perfect Armstrong cannon was very prone to barrel explosion accidents due to the insufficient rigidity of the material. Zhu Xianhai was not surprised by this, because its barrel was made of Bayer GM converter steel, which lacked rigidity, and the gun hoop used to reinforce the gun body was made of wrought iron in order to reduce costs.

Since Nanhua had open-hearth steel with better performance and a large-tonnage steam hammer for forging gun barrels, why couldn't it build cannons?

Therefore, the imitation of the Armstrong cannon was naturally included in the agenda.

The imitation work was extremely smooth. After all, the tools and raw materials were ready. After the open-hearth steel was cast into a cylindrical steel cannon blank, it was directly hammered into shape repeatedly with a large steam hammer. After the cannon blank was made, the tube was drilled with a drilling machine, the inner bore was processed, the rifling was drawn, and finally the outer steel hoop was inserted. Although the steps seemed complicated, they were actually no different from processing the transmission rod of a steam engine.

In fact, the reason why the cannon was able to be manufactured so quickly was precisely because of the experience accumulated from processing steam engine drive shafts, cylinders and other parts.

In the forging workshop of Zhenhua Iron and Steel Plant, accompanied by the hammering of a 30-ton steam hammer, the red-hot steel ingots are forged into shape like dough.

After looking around the workshop for a while, Zhu Xianhai asked.

"Is this the barrel of our 110-pound cannon?"

Zhu Xianhai pointed at the cylindrical steel billet that had just been processed. It looked like a steel column, just an ordinary steel column. In fact, in terms of quality, it was similar to the construction steel materials of later generations, and might even be a little worse in quality.

However, in this era, the materials they used were first-rate, because only Nanhua could provide open-hearth steel with excellent performance. Even ordinary carbon steel was still an extremely good raw material for the artillery of this era. Even the so-called Krupp cannon was made of steel, well, it was just ordinary carbon steel.

"Yes, sir. This is the inner barrel. After being rounded, it is inserted into the outer barrel. This is the complete inner barrel. At the breech, there are two outer barrels and two gun hoops. Unlike the British, the inner barrels, outer barrels and gun hoops we make are all made of steel."

Pierre said with some pride.

"I guarantee that our artillery is definitely better than theirs because we are using it far more than them."

His words brought a smile to Zhu Xianhai's face.

"So the cannons we build can definitely withstand higher chamber pressures?"

I have set up a book club: 335260551. Everyone is welcome to join and discuss and deduce the plot together.

(End of this chapter)