Wild North America 1846

Chapter 176 Going the way of others

Richard is a thief, and it is already 1849. Colt Arms Company needs two or three years from research and development to mass production of new artillery, just in time for the Crimean War that broke out in 1853.

At that time, you can make a lot of money.

The Crimean War can be said to be a rehearsal of the World War. The battle was unprecedentedly tragic. Tsarist Russia was on one side, Britain, France, the Kingdom of Sardinia, and Ottomans were on the other. Both sides had millions of troops participating in the war. It was really a war. Mountains of corpses and seas of blood, mountains and rivers change color.

This war has nothing to do with the Tang Dynasty, but it is a good opportunity to make money, which should not be missed.

The artillery design idea provided by Richard to Earl Samuel Colt is only a few years ahead of the world's technological line.

it won't take long

After the outbreak of the Crimean War, Lord Armstrong of England designed and produced an experimental 1854-pounder rifled gun during the Crimean War in 3.

The design was successful in both range and precision, and was adopted by the British government in 1858 for large-scale commissioning with naval and army units.

The reason why the British government did not immediately install this advanced artillery is because the 3-pound breech-loading rifled gun just developed by Armstrong is only experimental, and it has neither the ability to mass-produce, nor is it possible to produce and equip larger-caliber artillery.

The smaller the gun caliber, the lower the chamber pressure, the less difficult it is to develop and produce, and vice versa.

you're welcome

Large-caliber field guns and naval guns are produced and developed on a yearly basis, requiring strong technical force to tackle key problems, which can be described as the country's most important weapon.

The Armstrong gun is the earliest breech-loading rifled gun in the world. It has some advantages that smoothbore guns and front-loaded guns do not have:
That is, the shells are loaded from the rear, and a vertical wedge-type breech block is used, which is tightened by a large fastening bolt called an "Armstrong screw".

It is easier and faster to load the artillery shells. The inner wall of the barrel is engraved with spiral rifling, and the conical shells fired can rotate at high speed, which makes the artillery more accurate and has a longer range than smoothbore guns.

And all this

It was the advanced performance that Li Cha wanted the Colt artillery to have. One step ahead is victory, and two steps ahead is nerve.

Adhering to the principle of following the path of others and leaving others nowhere to go, Richard awakened the genius weapon designer Samuel Colt without any psychological burden,
After all, this is your own business, you have to take care of it, don't you?
if history doesn't change

Lord Armstrong of the United Kingdom relied on the invention of the 1854-pound breech-loading rifled gun in 3, and multiplied and developed the world's top Armstrong company. It is famous for producing advanced artillery and has been sold around the world for more than a hundred years.

Now, he can only stand aside.

Richard has already made a complete plan. When the breech-loading rifled artillery of Colt Weapons Company is successfully developed, Datang Kingdom will immediately place a large order and implement excess purchases.

Whether it is a 6-pound gun, a 12-pound gun, a 20-pound gun, a 30-pound gun or a 50-pound gun, all of them have invested a lot of money in large-scale storage, some of which are equipped with coastal fortresses, Phoenix Fortresses and Red Rock Valley Fortresses, and some are stored in army warehouses. .

Wait until the Crimean War starts, hum...

A huge business opportunity is coming. Li Cha can sell this advanced artillery to the Prussians and French, so he doesn't believe that the British won't take the bait, don't rush, and don't make big purchases...

At that time, the new Colt artillery will flood into the market on a large scale, first obtain huge profits at high prices, and then drastically reduce prices to occupy the market, cutting off the delusion of other weapon manufacturers to produce imitations.

There is no demand, but imitation fart?

These days, my hands and feet are not fast, and I can't even eat hot dog shit.

These business experiences are temporarily irrelevant to Earl Samuel Colt, as long as this guy fiddles with technological inventions.

Many people think that breech-loading guns are a kind of artillery that is more advanced than front-loading guns, but this is actually a misunderstanding.

In the 15th and 16th centuries, almost all European field artillery was breech-loading. Unlike modern breech-loading guns, breech-loading guns from hundreds of years ago used a wedge breech assembly to seal the bore, or used submunition launchers , that is, the Frankie Cannon familiar to the Chinese, was used on a large scale by the Guanning Iron Cavalry in the Ming Dynasty.

However, due to technical reasons, the leakage of gunpowder gas is difficult to solve, resulting in a short range and low power of the breech-loaded artillery.

As a result, the European artillery completely closed the tail of the gun, and the whole body was cast as one. The front-mounted smoothbore gun became popular and quickly dominated the Eurasian battlefield for more than 16 years from the 19th century to the 300th century.

The most obvious difference between front-loading guns and breech-loading guns is the structure of the gun tail.

The breech of the front-loading gun is quite simple. The gun body is cast as a whole without openings. In order to improve the strength of the barrel, several reinforcement hoops are provided on the gun body and the breech. rope.

Therefore, the tail button or shackle on the tail of the gun is the main feature of the front-loading gun. The front-loading gun equipped by the navy also has a large mount, which is used for the recoil after the artillery is fired-returning and reciprocating.

The muzzle can also be fired mechanically.In order to improve the ignition efficiency and to fight in bad weather such as rain and snow, at the end of the 19th century, Britain invented the flintlock percussion machine, which was used to launch the front-loading artillery.

The flintlock percussion machine belongs to the form of firing from the front breech gun, and can only be used on the upper part of the gun tail, not in the middle of the gun tail. The principle is the same as that of the flintlock musket. .

this age
There is no technical problem at all in the development of rear-loading rifled guns. This is just a piece of window paper, which can be broken with a light hand.

The only revolutionary invention of Sir Armstrong in England was the "metal screw breech block", together with cartridges and rifling, the latter two of which were nothing new.

Li Cha and his party stayed at Colt Arms Company for half a day, and chatted a lot about the design idea of ​​the rear-mounted rifled artillery. They almost designed the blueprint by hand, which triggered Earl Samuel Colt's discussion. With great inspiration, I couldn't sit still scratching my head.

As soon as the king and his party left, Earl Samuel Colt plunged into the laboratory with more than a dozen engineer assistants, and started the research and development work without sleeping or eating...

Colt Arms Company is located in Sidaoling Town, and continues to go deeper. After passing Wudaoling Town, it suddenly becomes clear to the eyes. There are endless farmland in the hinterland of the huge valley, a tall Dutch-style windmill stands by the river, and irrigation ditches extend to At the foot of a mountain far away.

The smoke from the kitchens in the villages and towns is like a scene of prosperous and wealthy villages and towns.

Sunshine City is located in the Sunshine Valley Basin, about 33 kilometers away from Sidaoling Town. It is the fifth important industrial town in the Tang Kingdom with a population exceeding 5. It is famous for its rich iron ore, coal, cement and cotton textile industries. It is a typical city. industrial town.

After the group arrived here, they stayed in the royal palace.

The Royal Palace in Sunshine City is located on a hill surrounded by green trees, with an area of ​​only three acres. It is small but exquisitely designed. It is a typical garden-style building in the south of the Yangtze River, with winding paths and corridors, which is very interesting.

Arriving here in a hurry, Li Cha, under the service of a group of court maids, changed out of his military uniform and put on a light robe, and walked into the warm inner room.

A fire is burning in the fireplace, exuding endless warmth.

Li Cha went to sit on the sofa by the fireplace, and three well-behaved and beautiful maids surrounded him with light steps, stretching out their white and jade hands to relieve His Majesty the king.

One maid rubbed her shoulders and neck behind the sofa, while the other two knelt by her legs, one on the left and the other on the right, knocking on His Majesty's legs and pinching his feet, so as to relieve the tired feeling of riding all the way.

In addition, the maids of the court served coffee, exquisite snacks and newspapers for His Majesty to read and enjoy.

Most of these are American newspapers a week ago, a few are newspapers issued by Datang Kingdom, and some are European newspapers earlier.

With nothing to do, Li Cha reads the newspaper every day to keep abreast of major events happening in North America and Europe, and quietly watch the ups and downs of the world.

After entering 1849
There is no big news worth noting in North America. If there is any news, Mexico has a new president. The previous president came to power at the end of last year. Richard didn't even remember his name.

Speaking of the president, US President Polkford was shot three times by the assassin, and after emergency treatment and more than two months of bed rest, he miraculously recovered.

The only aftermath was that President Polk became lame. A bullet severed his left femoral plexus and he had to walk with a cane.

It's like today's Polk administration, which lost a lot in last year's midterm elections and is now a broken duck.

Many senior officers at the General Staff Headquarters of the Datang Kingdom have serious doubts about the U.S. military. They believe that the 2 U.S. troops stationed in the Hugo Oasis are smoke bombs, and they are likely to launch a surprise attack on the Datang Kingdom without declaring war.

However, Li Cha knew that this was all groundless worry, and his premonition clearly showed;

The United States is now overwhelmed, and will not be able to launch a large-scale war for at least 3 to 5 years.

Recently, the relationship between the United States and France is very tense. The United States failed to pay war debts and high interest on time because of its huge debt default. Put pressure on this.

During the three-year war, the U.S. federal government had a backlog of more than 5.3 million U.S. dollars in debt, 46% of which belonged to French loan sharks alone. In addition, there were some French government loans, which included a large sum of money with interest.

With so much money, the U.S. federal government will not be able to spend it in 20 years, let alone 30 years.

Moreover, the Polk government has lost its prestige and is too busy to take care of itself. It does not hold a majority in both houses of Congress, so why fight?
After the humiliating peace of the foreign war crisis, the internal conflicts in the United States have begun to erupt. The southern slave states complained deeply about the huge war debts, and they could not even collect normal federal taxes.

This is undoubtedly a kind of resistance, but also a strong divisive attitude, which indicates that the conflict between the North and the South may erupt earlier than the original historical line.

(End of this chapter)