African Nationhood

Chapter 182 New Rifle Blueprint
  The arrival of a new life completely softened Shi Jintang. For more than a month, he hugged his little cotton-padded jacket every day, which made Alice a little jealous.

If Robin Trudeau hadn't sent a telegram asking him to go to Belgium to visit the Herstal Arsenal, he would not have been willing to leave his little baby.

……

Belgium's superior natural conditions are uniquely suited to the development of the weapons industry.

After nearly a year of construction, the Herstal Arms Factory has now built three main workshops, corresponding to Maxim, shell guns and Martini-Henry rifles.

The factory currently has 500 workers, most of whom are high-quality workers with middle school education.

Because the Martini-Henry rifle requires disassembly and assembly, production has not actually started yet. After production starts here, workers will continue to be recruited.

The Maxim machine gun was the first to establish a production line. After all, Maxim had its own factory. At that time, the patent rights and the production line were purchased together for the price.

King Leopold II of Belgium was very happy to learn that Nanhua Company had set up an arsenal on his territory. He immediately sent a large arms purchase order to the arsenal, directly purchasing 10 Maxim heavy machine guns and 10 rounds of ammunition.

This large order is worth 18000 pounds, which is a good start.

Seeing his old neighbor being so polite, Shi Jintang was naturally very pleased and planned to deal with this old neighbor more in the future.

(During his visit to Europe in 1896, Li Hongzhang asked about the price of Maxim machine guns and bullets. Each machine gun cost 300 pounds and 1000 rounds of bullets cost 150 pounds.)
  The production line of the shell gun has also been established, and the trial production phase has begun.

The current production version is a 10-round bullet version, and the bullets use the currently common 10.6mm*25mm bullets.

Because the black powder bullets are too large, the shape of the entire gun is very clumsy. The current shape feels like a plus version of a box gun.

The recoil of bullets of this caliber is too great. After continuous shooting, people's arms will be numb, and the muzzle smoke will be heavy.

Shi Jintang tried firing two shots, and then tried firing both guns simultaneously.

He really found the taste of "Plain Li Xiangyang" in his childhood, taking turns closing his eyes and shooting left and right.

Once it crackles, don’t worry about whether it hits or not, just one word, it’s great!

Trudeau couldn't bear to look at Shi Jintang's strange actions.

"Boss, what are you doing?"

Shi Jintang put down his pistol and moved his arms first to relieve the pain in his arm muscles.

Then he pretended to be serious and said: "The problem of the gun having too strong rear force is very fixed. I was just trying to solve this problem.

After just one try, I really ‘succeeded’. "

"Um, really?"

Shi Jintang chuckled: "You can try it and shoot each other with your left and right hands. This can solve the negative effect of the muzzle jumping up."

Trudeau immediately picked up two shell guns and fired several shots "bang bang", and soon he discovered the trick.

After a series of bullets were fired, Trudeau's arm was extremely sore.

"Boss, although your method is effective, this gun still needs to be debugged."

Shi Jintang nodded, "This black powder bullet is too bulky. We must make the gun body smaller. After all, this is a pistol and it cannot be too bulky."

Trudeau also nodded, "But the effectiveness of black powder is here. The bullet cannot be too streamlined. If it is smaller, it will not be powerful enough."

"This problem will be solved soon. The company is already trying to experiment with new gunpowder. We will send you some samples for testing."

Trudeau immediately perked up when he heard this, "Really, boss, you are such a genius!
  I have never seen such a powerful Chinese like you in my life. Boss, I admire you very much! "

Shi Jintang gritted his teeth after hearing this flattery, "You don't know how to flatter me, so forget it, let's talk about the new rifle."

Shi Jintang's words directly tickled Trudeau, "Boss, you finally recognized my talent. Do you want to talk to me about a new rifle? You know that I am currently studying the Mannlicher 1885 type, and I have begun to try to develop multiple rounds of ammunition. Box.

Do you think the tubular magazine is better or the leaky clip magazine like Mannlicher's? I think the leaky clip method is more promising. The tubular magazine is too simple, although it has a large capacity..."

"Okay, stop your nonsense, let me take note of it."

Trudeau nodded and said: "As ordered, boss, please speak!"

Shi Jintang cleared his throat, "The new repeating rifle I intend is different from any existing rifle magazine. It is a new magazine structure. This magazine must be able to hold 5 rounds of bullets and cannot be disassembled.

As for the bolt locking structure, it adopts front-end locking, and the bolt is a rotating and rear-pull type.

As for the bullet, you don’t need to design it. I will let the company’s arsenal conduct experiments first. The caliber of the bullet I envision is 7.7 mm. The specific value requires subsequent testing. "

The new rifle prototypes Shi Jintang ordered were the Japanese Type 38 and Type 99.

Shi Jintang had obtained real models of these two rifles in later generations. Although they could not be shot, their structures were no different from the real ones.

As for Mauser 98 or 98k, he can also do it, but it is not easy for Mauser brother. He has done it himself, so what do others have to eat?
  It would be better to come up with an "innovative" gun case and locking bolt structure first, then collect the patent fees with tears in your eyes, and then get a lot of praise. How sweet it would be.

I have to say that Mauser is really awesome. Although the Mauser rifle he designed cannot match the rate of fire of Lee-Enfield, Mauser's structural design is adopted by most countries' rifles.

As a result, later generations only recognized three types of bolt-action rifles before World War II: Lee-Enfield, Mosin-Nagant and Mauser.

Until later generations, the bolt action structure of bolt-action sniper rifles mostly adopted the Mauser bolt action design, and Lee Enfield of the same era had long been abandoned.

……

After Trudeau finished recording, he couldn't help scratching his head, "Boss, your requirements are a bit high. It is difficult to design a work that meets your requirements with the current design capabilities of our arsenal."

"Well, I already have a rough idea. You first arrange for the firearms designer to design the drawing according to my requirements and wait for my review.

This way I can always meet my requirements. In addition, how is your recruitment of firearms designers? "

The most important thing in an arsenal is the firearms designers, who are related to the success or failure of the arsenal.

The Belgian fn company of the original time and space was unable to find the right research and development direction at the beginning of its establishment and almost went bankrupt.

Fortunately, I met Browning, the genius American firearms designer, and obtained several of his star products, and finally made a name for myself.

During the Republic of China and the Anti-Japanese War, the "one gun, two horses and three flower mouths" most familiar to Chinese officers and soldiers were mostly Browning's works.

These star products will also be the source of creativity for the Herstal Arsenal in the future. The designers of the Arsenal do not require any genius.

But at the very least, one must be able to understand Shi Jintang's "creative" ideas and be able to successfully complete the assignment as required.

Trudeau immediately became energetic: "Please rest assured, I have privately contacted many designers of well-known weapons factories, offered them high salaries and promised to give them shares in the arsenal. Many of them have already been tempted."

Hearing this, Shi Jintang immediately understood, "That means you haven't successfully hired a designer yet?"

Trudeau had an embarrassed look on his face, "There is nothing we can do about it. After all, we have just been established. Now there are many technicians from the UK in the factory. I have promised to keep them with high wages."

Shi Jintang nodded, "Then let them make the design draft according to my requirements. For now, let's make do with it.

Once the factory is on track, you must find a way to recruit a few real designers, do you understand? "

Trudeau nodded immediately, "Yes, boss."

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  (End of this chapter)