I want to be emperor

Chapter 765 Type [-] Rear Loading Rifle

After the soldiers of the Guards in the front tested the newly developed breech-loading rifle of Hebei Weapons Company, this kind of rifle also appeared in Luo Zhixue's hands.

From Luo Zhixue's point of view, the appearance of this rifle was no different from the modern single-shot rifle he remembered. Of course, the caliber was larger, reaching eleven millimeters.

Its bolt structure adopts a rotating bolt locking structure. In fact, this bolt mechanism has existed in the Great Chu Empire for a long time. In the 22nd year of Chengshun, the firearms designers of the Firearms Research Institute directly under the Ministry of Industry made This kind of gun mechanism has been designed, and it is equipped with paper-packed fixed bullets and fired with a firing pin. At the same time, on the basis of the Type [-] front-line rifle, a rear-loading rifle concept gun has been modified and designed, namely the [-] Type breech-loading rifle.

Although the rifle at that time was a typical concept rifle, it could not be put into practical use due to serious air leakage and extremely high manufacturing cost, but it laid the foundation for some basic structures of the rear-loading rifle of the Great Chu Empire.

Fixed bullets, firing pins, and rotating bolts, these three major features gave the Great Chu Empire a major reference for subsequent research on a series of breech-loading rifles.

In the subsequent years of research on breech-loading rifles by various weapon companies, many design schemes continued to adopt these three design schemes. The main work was to carry out further optimization and improvement, especially to reduce air leakage, and at the same time, engineering implementation should also be considered.

After all, it doesn't make much sense to produce breech-loading rifles that can only be produced in small quantities in laboratories, and it doesn't make much sense to industrially produce rifles that are too expensive.

A rifle of hundreds of Chu Yuan is not even afforded by the three armies of the Great Chu Empire!

Therefore, the rear-loading rifle must be able to be mass-produced industrially, and at the same time, the cost must be reduced, not to mention a few dollars, but at least it must be reduced to a dozen or 20 yuan.

要知道大楚帝国的楚元还是比较值钱的，采用金本位下的大楚帝国楚元，一楚元含金量为3.5克（近代1英镑含金量约7.32克，1美元含金量约1.5克，1法郎含金量约0.29，1德国金马克=10德国马克=3.58克）。

Even though the economy of the Great Chu Empire has developed rapidly in recent years, and the income of the people has begun to increase, the average monthly salary of ordinary workers in Songjiang Prefecture is only about four Chu yuan, and only skilled workers can earn six or seven Chu yuan. However, the salary of a nine-rank patrol officer or a civil servant is only seven or eight Chu yuan.

When you compare the salaries of ordinary people in the contemporary Great Chu Empire, then you will find that even individual weapons of more than ten Chu Yuan are relatively expensive.

At present, the individual weapons equipped in large quantities in the Great Chu Empire, that is, the 21st/23rd series of front-loaded flash cap percussion rifles, the purchase price including the bayonet is only [-] Chu yuan.

It is famous for its high-priced individual weapons. At present, only the guards are equipped with a part. The sixteen type front-loading rifles equipped by very few hunters in the army. The initial purchase price in small batches is more than 150 Chu yuan. The purchase has been increased twice, and the current purchase price has been reduced to about 48 Chu yuan.

However, even at this price, the army and navy also expressed that it is completely unacceptable...so everyone knows about front-loading rifles, but so far, only the guards are still equipped with them in batches.

Therefore, whether weapons and equipment can be mass-produced and put into service, the price is a very important factor.

If it is only a breech-loading rifle of a dozen or twenty Chu Yuan, because of the huge improvement in performance and the huge change in combat mode, then for the sake of more advanced guns and tactical applications, then the military of the Great Chu Empire gritted their teeth and accepted it.

But dozens or even hundreds... Then don't dream, the military really can't afford it.

Because assuming that one of fifty Chu Yuan is one, then ten thousand is 50, one hundred thousand is 500 million, one million is 100 million... and once the Great Chu Empire is changed, the army, navy and guards are added together , Both rifles and carbines are counted, plus combat attrition, strategic reserves and other factors.

Then the purchase scale must be at least 200 million to start!

This is [-] million Chu Yuan, even if you pull all the leaders and minds of the three armies there and squeeze them dry, you won't be able to squeeze out so much money to change clothes!

Not to mention that this is just an individual weapon.

The Great Chu Empire’s army did not pay much attention to the weapons of individual soldiers when they fought. They paid more attention to artillery. You can see that a division in the Chu Army has dozens or even hundreds of artillery pieces at every turn. When the Chu Army fights, Mainly rely on artillery.

So it is impossible for the military to spend hundreds of millions of Chu Yuan on individual weapons.

You must know that in order to save money, the Army even converted a large number of previous series of flintlock guns into flash cap percussion guns and continued to use them.

As the emperor of the empire, Luo Zhixue also pays attention to and understands the use of military expenditures and equipment by the military, so when he saw this breech-loading rifle, he especially heard the introduction that the use of special rubber gaskets The air leakage problem was preliminarily solved, making this breech-loading rifle practically usable, and soldiers did not have to worry about blinding themselves with a random shot.

The most concerned issue is not the performance of this gun. Anyway, breech-loading rifles, as long as they can be used, they are basically not far behind. No matter what the effective range is, they can beat those front-loading smoothbore rifles.

What Luo Zhixue is most concerned about is whether it can be mass-produced and how much the production cost is.

So Luo Zhixue looked carefully at the gun and asked, "Can this gun be mass-produced? And what is the estimated cost?"

Dai Yongyan, Governor of Hebei Arms Company, immediately said: "Your Majesty, when we designed this experimental rifle, we had already considered the technical issues of mass production. It was because of the change of direction and the use of rubber gaskets to solve the air leakage problem.”

"If you blindly improve the processing accuracy and develop new materials, the cost of research and development and production will be very high."

"After adopting a new method and a new idea of ​​the rubber gasket, the difficulty of production has reached an acceptable level."

"According to our estimation, the difficulty of production will be about the same as that of Type 67 front-loading rifles, and it can be produced in large quantities. For small-scale production, the cost will be higher because the production line construction costs and R&D costs need to be allocated. It is estimated that It's like [-] yuan."

"However, with the gradual increase in production volume, production also requires a process. In the next few years, when technology continues to improve and production costs continue to decrease, the purchase price in the later stage can continue to be greatly reduced."

"According to our estimation, if only 50 pieces are produced, the average cost can be reduced to about [-] yuan. If the production quantity is increased to [-] pieces and the production time is slightly extended, then the comprehensive average price will be It can be lowered to about [-] Chu Yuan."

"If the production continues to reach one million units, then the price may even be lowered to less than [-] Chu yuan!"

Luo Zhixue didn't speak, but General Luo Yang, the commander of the third group army beside him, couldn't wait to say: "One hundred thousand pieces cost 50 yuan, why don't you grab them, it's so expensive so you can afford it!"

"And even if the breech-loading rifle is better than the current 21-year percussion gun, it is not worth more than ten times the difference!"

Hearing the general's words, Dai Yongyan closed his eyes and didn't want to speak!

This group of army generals talk about cost-effectiveness all day long. Nima, the Type [-] front-loading rifles have been out for several years, but I don’t see their large-scale equipment... I bought thousands of pieces of equipment for the front line Used by hunters in war zones.

The line infantry are still using outdated muskets.

This is a disgrace to the Empire, the enemy of the defense industry!
Researchers in the national defense industry have worked so hard to research all kinds of advanced guns and ammunition. Most of these high-level military generals don't even look at them, and just throw them in the warehouse...

But the military is really not in a hurry!
What's more, there is no urgency for these so-called new weapons. If you are good and cheap, then the military will...

After all, the flash cap musket is not impossible to use!
Nowadays, the military of the Great Chu Empire, especially the army, uses fire caps to fire muskets and also hangs and beats the natives of various countries. In the previous series of battles with the Russians, Central Asia and India, the fire caps of the Great Chu Empire Firing a musket is a great feat.

The advantage brought by the ultra-high firing rate of this rifle made the infantry of the Great Chu Empire Army sweep the world's invincible battle line...

This in itself has swept the world's invincible hands, and a woolen rifled gun is also needed!

This is the thinking of many people in the military, especially many generals in the army.

Basically it means: I know your stuff is good, but I don't need it!

If you insist on selling it to me, then you can only sell it cheaply, a few yuan is the best, no matter how bad it is, it can only be a dozen yuan, and you want a sky-high price of dozens of yuan, go ahead and dream!

This is also the reason why the Type 2 front-loading rifles were not equipped on a large scale in the army and navy. Luo Zhixue still wanted to support the continuous development of the firearms industry. Type front-loading rifles, which cost millions of Chu Yuan.

The problems faced by today's breech-loading rifles are actually similar to those of the previous front-loading rifles. It's not bad, but too expensive. The military doesn't want it...

Luo Zhixue is also well aware of these issues.

Don't expect the army and navy to purchase equipment for these new types of breech-loading rifles. They would rather sew and mend the muskets for another three years, and wait for the defense industry to lower the price before buying them.

Although Luo Zhixue is the emperor, he will not force the army and navy too much in this matter, unless he can give the army and navy an additional tens of millions of military expenditures, otherwise the emperor will lose face...

How to do?
What else can I do, I can only let the guards continue to be taken advantage of.

So Luo Zhixue turned around and said to Fang Qu, the Chief of Staff of the Guards: "Turn back to the Guards to see how this gun is, if it works, get a batch and try it!"

Admiral Fang Qu naturally had no objection, and was even very happy.

The Guards are different from the Army and Navy. The military expenditures of the Army and the Navy follow a straight-forward budget system, but the funds of the Guards are not allocated from military expenditures, but directly come from royal funds.

The royal family’s funds are more complicated. Part of it is the royal family’s funds directly allocated in the annual budget. This is generally a fixed ratio, about three percentage points, about 1000 million yuan per year.

There is also a part of tax revenue that is imperial tax. Among the types of taxes in the Great Chu Empire, some tax revenue belongs to imperial tax. This part of imperial tax does not participate in local financial distribution, nor is it turned over to the national treasury, but directly goes to the imperial treasury.

Then there is the income from the royal family’s industry. The royal family has a lot of industries, such as factories, farms, manors, commercial buildings, etc., several famous commercial streets in Shanghai County, Songjiang Prefecture, and many affiliated office buildings. , is owned by the royal family. These royal family assets are operated and managed by the royal family asset management department, which will generate a certain operating profit every year, part of which will be used as royal family funds.

In fact, only a very small part of these royal family funds is used for the daily expenses of the royal family members. After all, even if they are members of the royal family, their daily expenses are just that. Compared with the huge royal family funds, they are not worth mentioning.

A part of royal funds is mainly used for various expenses of royal institutions, such as many internal institutions in the palace.

But the big head is still used for the military expenditure of the Guards.

The funds of the Guards come directly from the royal family funds, which is the biggest difference between them and the army and navy.

How much to spend and how much to give is completely up to Luo Zhixue alone.

Luo Zhixue said to equip the extremely expensive rifled rifles, so equip them, anyway, the generals of the Guards don't need to worry about funding.

This situation also caused the Guards to become a testing ground for many new weapons of the Great Chu Empire, regardless of whether they were good or bad, they would try them out.

This was true of the Type [-] muzzle-loading rifle, and so is the new breech-loading rifle of today.

Luo Zhixue ordered the guards to try out the equipment, and after exploring the actual combat tactics of the breech-loading rifle, he also settled on the model of this gun.

It was directly shaped as a Type [-] breech-loading rifle.

Because this kind of weapon is not a weapon equipped in large quantities, the most official year number cannot be used, and only the manufacturer's number or other special meaning numbers can be used.

The number [-] was adopted because the Guards were previously equipped with Type [-] front-loading rifles, and at the same time, a small number of experiments were equipped with Type [-] rear-loading rifles (because the air leakage was too serious, the test equipment was withdrawn).

Now the breech-loading rifle of Hebei Weapons Company is already their third rifle, so it continues the previous numbering of [-] and [-], and adopts [-] as the numbering.

The manufacturer is naturally the Tianjin Firearms Factory under the Hebei Arms Company.

Tianjin Firearms Factory, which is the largest and most technologically advanced firearms arsenal in the northern region, has produced a series of smoothbore guns before that, and is also one of the manufacturers of Type 1000 front-loading rifles. The Army produced nearly [-] Type [-] rifles, and also provided the Army with more than [-] improved Type [-] rifles.

With rich experience in the production of rifled rifles, at least making a rifled barrel or something is not a big problem for them.

The reason why Tianjin Firearms Factory is able to produce this series of rifled guns is because of Type [-] front-loading rifles and Type [-] rear-loading rifles, both of which are researched by the Firearms Research Institute directly under the Ministry of Industry. The results were awarded to the five major arms companies for free.

The five major arms companies can produce or improve their own front-loading rifles and rear-loading rifles according to their design patents.

Tianjin Machinery Factory improved and adjusted the design based on the prototype of the Type [-] rifle. The most important thing was to re-develop and improve the barrel, and came up with a steel barrel with a relatively low price.

Only then did the Guards obtain an order for the Type [-] rifle.

Therefore, for rifled rifles, whether they are front-loaded or rear-loaded, in fact, the starting point of the five major weapon companies is similar, and the source of technology is the same.

More competition comes from cost control, optimization of details and subsequent improvements.

The Tianjin Firearms Factory is undoubtedly at the forefront. After all, there are more than a dozen firearms factories with research capabilities under the five major arms companies in the Great Chu Empire.

Just under the Hebei Weapons Company, there are Tianjin Firearms Factory and Liaodong Firearms Factory. These two firearms factories have research and development capabilities.

The Dangtu Arsenal, Songjiang Armory, and Hantian Armory in the Jiangnan Arms Company are all large arsenals with firearms research and development capabilities.

So in the firearms market, the Great Chu Empire is actually not just the competition of the five major arms companies, but the competition among more than a dozen firearms factories.

The competition is still very cruel. Although there is no winner-take-all situation, the winner still eats most of the fat, leaving only a little bone dross for other manufacturers to maintain the team and avoid complete bankruptcy.

After seeing the eighteen rifles, Luo Zhixue had no obvious interest in the latter rifles, they were all old-fashioned and nothing new.

The artillery is similar, the rear-loaded rifled guns are useless, and the front-loaded rifled guns are still not needed due to problems such as high cost and short barrel life. Even the Guards have only conducted some symbolic experiments. When there is a war, you still have to pull the bronze cannon to the battlefield.

So now the main production equipment is naval artillery, and the navy doesn't care about the life of the barrel of two or three hundred rounds.

Therefore, at present, the technical difficulty of rifled artillery, whether it is front-loaded or rear-loaded, is still on the barrel!
The material and processing of the barrel itself are not good, and no design will work!
Apart from guns, there are not many other things to see, that is, one of the new revolvers made him look more. This thing is a flip revolver with fixed bullets in a paper case.

There is nothing new in the design structure, but the size is relatively compact, the number of parts is also small, and the caliber is not the [-]mm of the cavalry revolver, but the smaller [-]mm caliber is used, because this pistol is issued to officers and Artillery self-defense pistols do not require as much lethality as cavalry pistols, but require greater portability.

When Luo Zhixue held this thing in his hand, he felt that this thing was not much different from the revolver in his memory, with a moderate weight and just the right size.

Then he put the empty gun back into the gun bag, and hung it directly on his waist, tried to draw the gun again, and said: "This pistol is good!"

Good weight and size, slightly better than both officers' revolvers in service.

The officers of the Great Chu Empire also had artillery and other technical arms. They had been issued revolvers before, but they were basically of the same series as the cavalry pistols. They were relatively heavy and had a large caliber. As an individual self-defense weapon, they were actually very Not suitable.

If this lighter small-caliber revolver is adopted, it will be more convenient for officers and technical arms such as artillery to carry and use self-defense pistols.

But at the end of the day, Luo Zhixue saw a new gadget... The reason why he said it was a gadget was because it was really small!

This is a new bullet!

A kind of fixed installation, but the shell is not the cardboard used in the previous fixed bullets, but brass.

This is an all metal fixed bullet!

(End of this chapter)