Vientiane Throne of Civilization

Chapter 1784 Gold Swallowing Beast

The rate of fire of a dwarf's hand-cranked heavy machine gun depends to some extent on the speed at which the operator cranks it.

However, it's not that the faster you crank it with your eyes closed, the better. There's a specific rhythm to it. If you crank it too fast, it's easy to jam. If the rhythm is wrong, the firing of the hand-cranked heavy machine gun will not be as smooth.

Therefore, it's difficult to give a completely precise time; we can only say it's approximately one minute.
Even so, this rate of fire is already astonishing.

In the present-day Great Zhou Dynasty, and even in all known areas of the world, there is no firearm capable of firing two hundred bullets in one minute.

From this perspective, the emergence of the hand-cranked heavy machine gun was a disruptive change of balance and a revolutionary product.

Similar in design to the Thunder Revolver, but the hand-cranked heavy machine gun has a completely different role, possessing a super strong continuous firing capability!
If you can fire two hundred bullets in a minute, how can you possibly use only one ammunition belt?

But if you bring ten of these, that's ninety pounds.

What's even more outrageous is that, even with full firepower, including the time spent changing ammunition belts, these ten ammunition belts are only enough for you to fire wildly for a little over ten minutes.

Putting aside the 90-pound ammunition belt and the 140-pound heavy machine gun, don't the soldiers' own equipment also have weight?

Therefore, the actual load carried by machine gunners would only be more exaggerated.

However, Zhou Xu wasn't worried at all about not being able to use it, because the full name of this thing was the Dwarf Hand-Cranked Heavy Machine Gun.

Although dwarves are short, their arms are thicker than your thighs, and their strength and stamina are racial advantages that are far beyond what ordinary humans can match.

Even so, it is very difficult for ordinary dwarf soldiers to be competent. Only the best of the best dwarf soldiers can be selected to form a dwarf machine gunner unit.

The Grassland Military Region had already figured this out in cooperation with the Ordnance Research Department.

Under this premise, the minimum standard for dwarf machine gunners is three dwarves per group, which can be increased to five or even ten if conditions permit.

Taking the three-person team as an example, during the movement, one person is responsible for carrying the machine gun, one person is responsible for carrying the support frame, and the other person is responsible for carrying the ammunition.

When it came to battle, after the heavy machine gun was set up, one dwarf machine gunner was responsible for operating the hand-cranked heavy machine gun, while the other two dwarf soldiers, in addition to providing appropriate assistance, were responsible for ensuring the safety of the dwarf machine gunner, so that the dwarf machine gunner could concentrate his attention entirely on operating the heavy machine gun.

Based on this, increasing the number of dwarf machine gun squad members to five would allow them to carry more ammunition.

If the number of men is increased to ten, then by finding a suitable spot on the battlefield, setting up a hand-cranked heavy machine gun there, and using that heavy machine gun as the center, a ten-man squad can easily be deployed to fight positional warfare.

On the battlefield, if this heavy machine gun is used well, the suppressive power it displays can be at least equivalent to an entire enemy company, so adding that number of people to the team is definitely worthwhile.

Of course, that heavy machine gun could shoot down more bullets than an entire enemy company combined.

The Thunder Rifle has five bullets in one magazine, and two hundred bullets can fill forty magazines, enough for a hand-cranked heavy machine gun to fire continuously for one minute.

Therefore, while its suppressive power is equivalent to that of an entire enemy company, its ammunition consumption is also undoubtedly much higher, making it a true "money-devouring beast".

When Zhou Xu got to this point in his conversation with Zhuang Mengdie, he frowned.

"Given this ammunition consumption rate, once this hand-cranked heavy machine gun officially enters service, will we need to add another ammunition production line?"

Faced with this question, Zhuang Mengdie nodded without hesitation.

"Out of caution, it would be better, even in my opinion, to add two more."

Because their current firearms development is basically based on the blueprints provided by the dwarves, the bullets used in their firearms are currently universal.

Compared to early flintlock muskets, the Thunder Rifle's ability to fire five shots rapidly in a short period of time represented a qualitative leap.

But compared to the rate of fire of 200 rounds per minute of this hand-cranked heavy machine gun, the rate of fire of the Thunder Rifle was as slow as an old lady taking a walk.

Once this weapon is produced, considering its ammunition consumption, the original ammunition production will definitely not be enough, and new production lines will be needed! Needless to say, this will be another significant financial expenditure.

Even before it's officially in mass production, the fact that hand-cranked heavy machine guns are so expensive is already becoming apparent.

Besides this issue, what else is worth noting?

That should be routine maintenance. After all, this is a weapon with a relatively complex internal linkage structure, so it definitely needs some time to be maintained regularly, otherwise it is easy to run into problems at critical moments.

However, Zhou Xu didn't see these as major problems.

After the introduction, the Grassland Military Region dispatched a dwarf squad, mainly composed of dwarf machine gunners, to conduct a live-fire exercise.

The entire process included marching in the field with heavy machine guns, and quickly setting up the heavy machine guns at the target location to kill the enemy.

The entire process was clearly well-rehearsed, and Zhou Xu expressed his satisfaction with it.

"Good. Make a list later, get the Ministry of Finance to approve it, and then start setting up the production line. Produce the first batch of hand-cranked heavy machine guns as soon as possible. Also, don't neglect the training of the dwarf machine gunners."

Based on the current performance, Zhou Xu felt that it was possible to deploy troops in those oasis strongholds to enhance their defensive firepower.

Although in their original plan, the oasis stronghold could be abandoned at any time, the key was to hold the borders of the Rakshasa and the desert.

But it would be even better if we could just hold on and not give up.

Having personally confirmed the performance of the new weapon, on his way back, Zhou Xu, as always, made a detour to the grassland horse farm to check on the latest situation.

In recent years, the most important project at the grassland horse farm has been the breeding of Tianma horses.

Because the Pegasus provided by the female warrior race had already reached a certain scale, the breeding of Pegasus proceeded very smoothly.

With the breeding group at the grassland horse farm remaining unchanged and able to continue breeding effectively, the number of adult Pegasus horses ready for official service has already exceeded one hundred.

As a result, the Pegasus Knights of the female warrior race quickly expanded into a hundred-knight unit.

In Ma Guotao's words, he has weathered the most difficult period. Today, the breeding of Tianma horses has become stable, and in the next few years, barring any unforeseen circumstances, the number of Tianma horses will only increase.

Although Zhou Xu is a modern person, his experiences over the past few years have made him realize that many things cannot be solved by technological means.

This has led him to pay more and more attention to the development of the fantasy side in recent years.

Not to mention that in this era before airplanes were invented, the Pegasus Knights were a very important aerial combat force, perfectly making up for the shortcomings of the Great Zhou Giant Eagle Knights and Wyvern Riders, who lacked endurance, strength, and direct combat capabilities.

Normally speaking, with such a force at his disposal, wouldn't he just blindly attack ordinary forces?
Unfortunately, in the last two years, one or two of them have turned out to be decent.

Needless to say, the sea creatures live directly in the sea, and at this stage they can only passively defend themselves; there is nothing else they can do.

On the other side of the desert, that unknown force is also a headache.

Although we've never officially met, the other party is under a restriction.

That alone is enough to make people nervous.

Whenever Zhou Xu thought about the situation on both sides, he couldn't help but feel a wave of exhaustion.

"Ah~"

Life is tough, Zhou Xu sighed.

(End of this chapter)