Vientiane Throne of Civilization

Chapter 1650 Exploitation of Labor

“Your Majesty, the positioning and function of the dwarven heavy cannon are basically the same as conventional cannons, there’s nothing to say about that. But the Thunder Rotary Cannon is different.”

At this point, Zhuang Mengdie gathered her thoughts.

"The Thunder Rotary Cannon is a special type of artillery weapon with eight barrels. Its characteristic is that it can fire at a high frequency in a short period of time."

"But once a round of shelling is over, all eight gun barrels must be cleaned and reloaded before the next round of shelling can be carried out. In other words, the operation time in between is about eight times that of conventional cannons."

"Of course, if it's just to make up for the gap when the Thunder Rotary Cannon is loading shells, then the artillery units can simply divide the Thunder Rotary Cannon into two groups to fire, thus solving this problem."

As the head of the Ordnance Research Department, Zhuang Mengdie, who has been researching ordnance and weapons for many years, must have a sufficient understanding of some tactics. Otherwise, how could weapons manufactured without considering the actual situation be of any use on the battlefield?
Basically, problems that can be solved with this kind of adjustment are definitely not worth setting up a separate R&D project team for research and development, and then setting up a separate production line for production, because the investment would be too great.

"The biggest problem with the Thunder Rotary Cannon is that although it can unleash an explosive eight-shot burst in a short period of time, it is significantly inferior to conventional cannons in terms of effective range and the power of a single shell."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Xu immediately understood.

If their artillery units are only equipped with Thunder Rotary Cannons but not conventional cannons, they are likely to be suppressed by opponents with conventional cannons due to the range of the cannons.

At the same time, the insufficient power of a single shell is also a problem that cannot be ignored when necessary.

The Thunder Revolver has its own characteristics and advantages, but it also has limitations.

If the military can only be equipped with one type of artillery weapon, then it should still be a conventional cannon. Although it is conventional, it is versatile and easy to use.

With Zhou Xudu already raising questions, Zhuang Mengdie took the opportunity to explain each of the several design drawings they had discussed and selected, one after another.

"In comparison, this dwarf's hand-cranked heavy machine gun can wait."

"This dwarven hand-cranked heavy machine gun is somewhat like a weakened version of the Thunder Cannon, but it is lighter and more maneuverable. According to Thorin, the dwarven designers from the old civilization designed this weapon, apparently for use in mountainous terrain."

Once Zhuang Mengdie said that, Zhou Xu understood.

The mountainous terrain is steep and lacks suitable environments, so there is simply nowhere to deploy large military equipment like artillery. In such situations, relatively small and lightweight heavy machine guns can quickly form effective fire suppression simply by being set up.

In addition, this heavy machine gun should also be very effective in some relatively complex small environments.

If possible, Zhou Xu would certainly want them all.

But both financial resources and R&D personnel are limited.

Just as Zhuang Mengdie said, if a choice had to be made, then the dwarf hand-cranked heavy machine gun could be put aside for now and studied after the other projects were completed.

"Then there is the Thunder Rifle. The structure of this rifle is actually very similar to the M1891 that we are currently developing."

Zhuang Mengdie was also the head of the M1891 rifle development project team, so she undoubtedly has the right to speak on this matter.

"My idea is to put the development of the two rifles into the same project team. The two rifles can be referenced and adjusted for each other, and who knows, we might be able to develop a better rifle."

"The R&D budget and manpower may need to be increased slightly, but it will definitely be more economical than setting up a separate project team."

Clearly, Zhuang Mengdie was also aware that their Great Zhou Dynasty had invested too much in various development projects in the past two years, and their financial resources were not very abundant.

“In addition, Sorin has considerable experience and ideas in firearms development. Your Majesty, I humbly request that Sorin participate in both the Thunder Revolver and the development of new firearms.” “As long as Sorin can manage the workload, that’s no problem.”

However, he had barely finished speaking when Qin Fen beside him hurriedly raised his hand.

"Your Majesty, I need him too!"

Zhou Xu rolled his eyes at Qin Fen, but ultimately agreed.

Qin Fen is a top talent in energy and power, but his expertise is not really relevant to weapons development. The project there does indeed need a specialist to join.

At this moment, Zhou Xu was not worried that Solin would be too busy.

Previously, Zhuang Mengdie was also in charge of multiple project teams at the same time. As a top talent of five-star level, and with such a perfect talent, Suolin should have performed better than Zhuang Mengdie in terms of military equipment research and development.

At this moment, Solin was not at all disgusted by Zhou Xu's exploitation of labor on the spot.

The main reason is that he genuinely enjoys researching this subject, and now that he has the opportunity, he naturally wouldn't refuse.

A series of arrangements were quickly made. After receiving the task directly from Zhou Xu, Zhuang Mengdie and the other two did not linger. Each of them was a busy person with multiple jobs and had no time to waste.

For a period of time afterward, apart from handling daily government affairs, Zhou Xu focused his main energy on the follow-up progress of the small communication cube.

In the forging department, they had already accumulated enough experience in smelting special alloys, and with the help of the dwarven mineral encyclopedia, they were able to quickly smelt a batch of alloys suitable for making small communication cubes.

The rest was simple. As for the appearance, Zhou Xu didn't bother with any fancy tricks and just followed the shape of the small communication cube. Then he quickly engraved the enchantment runes on it.

With the completion of the final enchanting work, the first small communication cube made by the Great Zhou itself was officially completed!

Zhou Xu had a giant eagle knight fly to the outside of the city with the small communication cube they had made themselves, while Zhou Xu himself sat in a side hall with the one passed down from the old civilization and skillfully began to operate it.

"Hey, can you hear me?"

Compared to Zhou Xu, who was handling things with ease, the giant eagle knight who had brought the small communication cube to the outside of the city was clearly a bit flustered at this moment.

After finally getting through on the phone, before he could even breathe a sigh of relief, his emperor's voice came from the ball of light and shadow that appeared in front of him.

This made the giant eagle knight both nervous and curious.

They had only heard about the effects of this thing and had never seen it with their own eyes. The feeling they were experiencing now was like opening the door to a new world.

"Your Majesty, I can hear you!"

Zhou Xu breathed a sigh of relief upon receiving the reply. Although he was very confident from the beginning, he still had a little bit of worry in his heart before the test was successful.

"Alright, take that small communication cube and make a sample for them. You go and give the order to start mass production!"

"Yes!"

(End of this chapter)