Fleshing out the Middle Kingdom Army.

[damocles]

Just how is the current Middle Kingdom Imperial Army equipped?  



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This is fairly historically accurate with a few changes. One is that the Madsen self loading rifle replaces the K-98, and the next that the hodge-podge of British and French 1880s field guns of confusing calibres and performances are replaced by a German Empire short barreled smooth bore  muzzle loaded howitzer that the historic Chinese could easily copy in the thousands if they had the central arsenals and unified government to do it.

Given Mongol ponies as draft animals, the mountain terrain of NE China, and a huge RR gun tech investment in foundry works, this choice makes perfect sense for Phoenix's MK Imperial Army as a standard field gun/howitzer/minengewerfer. They are all about high angle massed area fires in artillery doctrine, just like some other army we know?      

Since it is a fortress troop infantry baseline army of about 1905 extraction, the weapons mix reflects this.

The main deviation is the cavalry. This arm is more like light mounted infantry than anything else so they are equipped with carbines and portable machine guns rather than the battle rifles and defensive machine guns of the line infantry.

As you can see it is an effective equipage, but there are serious weaknesses  which showed up in the Nverse records of the MK's recent wars.

How very Dutch! 

[maddox]

The Middle Kingdom has 3 important pieces of large artillery.

Something in the range of the 150mm houwitsers, fairly modern.

The old 250mm naval gun and the equaly old ACM patterened 330mm L35 as railgun mountings . In the highdays of the MK these pieces were numbered in the 100's, but changing demands and the upkeep cost has reserved or scrapped a lot of these guns, if they weren't reused as casemated or pop up fortress guns.

[damocles]

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These represent  the railroad and heavy field guns used currently by the MK Imperial Army.

The15 cm. field gun is a complex and heavy horse drawn artillery piece for the Imperial arsenals, I would think they would have no more than several hundred of these artillery pieces on hand.  

The RR guns the Middle Kingdom made a massive investment to develop. Some of these RR guns are now converted into emplaced fortress guns, some are in storage, a few are still in use.      

D.

[damocles]

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Well the levee en masse peasant infantry had to be armed with something? 

[Borys]

Great job!

[Walter]

I would expect the shotgun barrel to be converted so it can hold some emergency rice rations. :)

[Borys]

Ahoj!

I would expect the shotgun barrel to be converted so it can hold some emergency rice rations. :)

And what do you think the "stopper" is?
A piece of WOOD? Deamon DUNG? The Emperor's BOOGERS?
No!
It's pickled cucumber seasoning!
Borys

[Walter]

Hmmm... Might also be a good holder for chopsticks...

[Borys]

Ahoj!
Chopsticks are in the bayonet scabbard ...
Borys

[Walter]

A bunch of Chinese soldiers charging at you with chopsticks fastened to their rifles instead of bayonets...

[Borys]

Ahoj!
Vely good fol eye gouging, yesss!

[Walter]

Hele. Have an eye fol dinnel. :)

[Borys]

LOL!
Had I ever introduced you to the horrors of this page:
http://engrish.com/
Borys

[damocles]

The weapons are cheap, reasonably simple to make, and a peasant can learn them quickly.  

As for the Lemat, I had to make it treaty legal. as well as well as find a simple evolved revolver that the MK could buy off the shelf initially in 44 calibre, then "copy" and improve as their own arsenals develop small arms.

The Lemat after 1865, if it continued would have evolved a Remington type extractor system and used Winchester style center fire cartridges. The shotgun barrel would evolve as the center spindle for the revolver cylinder thus making a late model Lemat a break open pistol that you swap loaded cylinders out with quickly, like the magazines of later automatic pistols would develop. Presumably as this was a hunting pistol and not a military weapon, the smooth-bore shotgun barrel put there in this late model for hunting and was intended for Mister Bear, Mister Boar*, or Mister Cougar. Remember this is a Confederate made weapon.

The Arkansas razorback  is a medium sized ferocious American wild pig who lives in the American South (his range is spreading from the lower Mississippi River Valley out where he started when he turned wild down to the present) Even today he is NO joke as he is a wild boar or sow with a mean disposition.

Confederate farmers might appreciate a shotgun barrel in a revolver they could carry with them as a defense, as they plow their fields with those oinkers running around.          

[Guinness]

Granted I've never come nose to nose with any of the really really really big pigs (1000+ lbs, are you kidding me?) down south, but I imagine that anything that shotgun barrel would stop would probably also be stopped by a .44 round, especially at the short ranges the shotgun would be effective. I suppose not having to aim quite so precisely is an advantage, but then again so is firing more than one round.