Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 223 The Birth of the Maxim Machine Gun

Not long after the second arms trade order was signed with Russia, another good news came from the Royal Ordnance Factory.

Maxim, a weapons design engineer at the Royal Arsenal and the chief expert in machine gun design, came to the palace in person to report the good news to Carlo. That is, after six and a half years of research and development, the Maxim machine gun that Carlo had always dreamed of finally achieved certain results.

Carlo invited the Maxim brothers to come to Spain to take up important positions in January 1871. During the past six and a half years, the Maxim brothers have been working as weapons design engineers at the Royal Arsenal, mainly responsible for the design of machine guns and the development of smokeless gunpowder.

At the beginning, the machine gun research and development project team only consisted of the two Maxim brothers, but as the Royal Arsenal acquired a large number of military talents, the number of firearms engineers in the machine gun research and development project team increased, and now has more than 30 people.

In addition to the famous Maxim, the firearms engineers who were able to join the machine gun research and development project team were also famous firearms engineers in Italy, Austro-Hungary or Spain.

Moreover, only firearms engineers who had completely immigrated to Spain would be invited by Carlo to join the R&D project team of machine guns. Machine guns are known as the king of all guns, and their role in war is much higher than that of rifles.

In the era of manual rifles, a truly fully automatic machine gun will completely change the situation of war.

Currently, Russia and the Ottoman Empire are both using human wave assault tactics in the Balkan battlefield. Russia has gained a great reputation with its human wave assault tactics, which is also the reason why European countries are afraid of Russia.

But during World War I, after the armies of various countries were fully armed with machine guns, conventional human wave tactics had lost their effectiveness.

A cluster charge is tantamount to systematic suicide for a machine gun. It just consumes more bullets and increases the kd.

It is also because of this that machine guns are so important to Spain that they must be kept secret if possible.

As soon as he learned that the machine gun had been developed, Carlo went to the Royal Arsenal weapons testing site on the outskirts of Madrid to admire Spain's first truly automatic firearm.

The Royal Arsenal placed the weapons testing site in the mountainous area outside Madrid. Further north is the Central Mountains, which is a rarely visited area. There is no need to worry about causing panic among residents or the attention of foreign spies during weapons testing.

Riding in Benz's newly improved "car", at a speed of nearly 30 kilometers per hour, Carlo and his team quickly arrived at the weapons testing site.

Accompanying Carlo to watch the machine gun test were the current Prime Minister and Defense Minister Serrano, Chief of the Defense General Staff Marca Anthony Fletcher, Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Spanish Army Evan Bradley and Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Spanish Navy Grayson Ruiz.

It can be said that because of this small test of the machine gun, many Spanish military leaders came.

Defense Minister Serrano holds the rank of marshal, and Chief of Staff Fletcher, Army Commander-in-Chief Evan, and Navy Commander-in-Chief Grayson all hold the rank of admiral.

This also shows how much the military values ​​machine guns. Carlo had already mentioned the role of automatic weapons such as machine guns, and the military had already conducted research on them.

If it was determined that the machine gun manufactured by Maxim was not much different from the one described by Carlo, the military would order at least thousands of machine guns to significantly enhance Spain's firepower.

Of course, in order to maintain maximum confidentiality, machine guns will not be equipped to the troops immediately. Instead, a brand new force will be formed to conduct machine gun training.

When the future war against Spain breaks out, these troops specially trained in machine guns will be split into several small units and dispersed among the various infantry divisions in Spain.

When Carlo and his team arrived at the weapons testing site, Maxim and a group of experts in machine gun research and development were already waiting respectfully outside the site.

"Your Majesty." Seeing Carlo getting off the carriage, Maxim walked quickly forward and saluted Carlo respectfully.

It was Carlo who gave him the opportunity to use his abilities in his favorite position as a gun engineer. Carlo also gave him enough budget so that he could conduct his experiments as he pleased without worrying about funding.

After six and a half years of hard work, this Maxim machine gun seemed to be quite perfect. It was Maxim's reward for Carlo's trust in him.

"Well done, Mr. Maxim." Carlo nodded and was very kind to Maxim and the group of firearms experts behind him.

Carlo has done a good job in valuing talents. As long as these talents are willing to contribute to Spain, Carlo is willing to treat them well and provide them with more generous rewards and salary packages.

Led by Maxim's team of experts, everyone quickly walked into the weapons testing site, where a Maxim machine gun and ten Spanish Vitali M1872 rifles had been placed.

"Your Majesty, generals, please look, this is the result of our research and development, a real machine gun.

Mr. Gatling's rotary machine gun gave us some inspiration, but what we made was completely different from Mr. Gatling's machine gun. It was a truly automatic machine gun.

The muzzle diameter of this machine gun is 11.43 mm and the entire machine gun weighs 27.2 kg. It can fire single shots and continuous shots, and the firing rate of the machine gun can also be adjusted through the firing rate regulator.

Because the machine gun has an extremely fast rate of fire, we used a canvas belt to feed ammunition, and the maximum capacity of the belt is 333 rounds.

We use the most advanced recoil spring, shell ejection system, belt feeding mechanism, and acceleration mechanism in our machine guns. With gunpowder gas as the power, we can complete a series of actions such as feeding, firing, and ejecting shells by just pulling the trigger.

Using such a machine gun, soldiers no longer need to reload bullets while firing, which saves most of the time and also enhances the firepower of the machine gun itself.

According to our estimates, the maximum rate of fire of this machine gun is 600 rounds per minute, and the service life of the barrel is 3330 rounds.

The biggest problem with this machine gun at present is that the overheating of the barrel will make the entire machine gun scrapped, and it is difficult to have time to replace the barrel on the battlefield.

We are developing a water-cooled machine gun. When there is a water source, this type of machine gun can dissipate heat more effectively than an air-cooled machine gun, and the service life of the barrel will be extended to more than 7000 rounds of bullets.

But even with the above shortcomings, this machine gun can still provide firepower that rifles cannot achieve within 5 to 10 minutes, helping our army to have a greater advantage in attack or defense. "Maxim slowly introduced the machine gun he developed, and was quite confident when mentioning the shortcomings.

The reason for Maxim's confidence was naturally that the machine gun he developed had extremely powerful firepower compared to a rifle.

Spain's standard rifle, the Vitali M1872 rifle, could only fire 10 to 15 bullets per minute, even when used by extremely skilled soldiers.

马克沁机枪的最高射速是维塔利M1872步枪的40到60倍，这也代表着50个士兵全力射击的火力才能勉强和一挺机枪抗衡。不过马克沁机枪在火力方面也不是没有缺点的。因为马克沁机枪重达27.2千克，行军作战至少需要两个人来抬这挺50多斤的机枪。

Because the machine gun has a very fast firing rate, it also requires a large supply of bullets. These bullets also need a lot of people to carry, which means that in addition to the main and deputy machine gunners to operate the machine gun, a machine gun also requires additional loaders, transport soldiers and messengers.

According to Maxim's own estimates, in order to maximize the firepower of the machine gun, each machine gun would require at least 5 to 8 soldiers to man it.

However, compared to current rifles, the firepower of machine guns is still quite superior. 5 to 8 soldiers can exert the firepower of nearly 50 soldiers using rifles, which is quite effective on the battlefield.

After hearing Maxim's introduction, Carlo nodded with satisfaction, and then said with a smile: "Mr. Maxim, these guys are already looking forward to the machine gun you mentioned. When can the test be started? I also want to see if this so-called machine gun is really that magical?"

"Everything is ready. We can start now." Maxim immediately replied when he heard Carlo's question.

The Royal Arsenal had been preparing for this test for a long time, and its purpose was to demonstrate the powerful firepower of the machine gun directly to Carlo and the generals behind him.

"Let's get started." Carlo nodded.

Following Carlo's order, several experts familiar with the Maxim machine gun began to prepare for the test.

This machine gun experiment is divided into several parts. The first is to directly demonstrate the maximum firepower of the machine gun and the design of single-shot and continuous firing. The second is to compare it with ten rifles to show the powerful firepower of the machine gun.

Then we will test the service life of the machine gun barrel and the time required to reload the machine gun.

After completing all these experiments, the advancement and power of this machine gun will be fully demonstrated. For these military leaders, they can also judge whether this machine gun is effective on the battlefield.

The preparations were quickly completed and the testing of the machine gun officially began.

The first thing to test is the maximum firepower of the machine gun. The test method is also very simple, that is, after changing the bullet, directly output at full power while timing for one minute.

Da da da! Da da da da da!
As the expert in charge of timing gave a start gesture, the Maxim machine gun operated by two machine gunners began to vent its firepower.

Bullets were fired out from the muzzle quickly, forming a line, making the muzzle of the Maxim machine gun look like it was emitting fire.

The trunk of a big tree 50 meters away was blasted by continuous bullets, forming huge craters.

It didn't even take a minute for the tree to be cut in half by the bullets. The military leaders couldn't help but applaud, and they were obviously quite satisfied with the firepower of the machine gun.

"Time's up." The expert in charge of timing quickly reminded the two machine gunners after seeing that the one minute had been up.

The machine gun soon stopped firing, and the two machine gunners were responsible for counting the total number of bullets fired by the machine gun.

In fact, it is easy to calculate. A canvas belt has a total of 333 bullets. Only one and a half belts are consumed within one minute. You only need to count the number of bullets remaining in the second belt to know how many bullets the Maxim machine gun fired in one minute.

After a brief inventory, the experts finally came up with a fairly satisfactory number: 592 bullets.

Of course, there is a certain amount of time between the end of the time signal and the cessation of shooting. But what is certain is that the maximum firepower of this Maxim machine gun within one minute is at least 550 rounds.

Although Carlo did not express his attitude, the smile on Carlo's face showed that Carlo was quite satisfied with the performance of the machine gun in front of him.

There is no need to say much about the top military officials. After the figure of 592 bullets was obtained, all the top military officials, including Archduke Serrano, had been staring at the machine gun intently, as if they wanted to sleep with it in their arms.

"The next test is single shot and continuous shooting." The expert in charge of the test first explained to Carlo and senior military officials, and then began to prepare for the test.

Single shot and continuous shooting are very useful for machine guns. After all, machine guns are big beasts that consume a lot of bullets, and it is difficult for logistics to meet the bullets needed by machine guns all the time.

In some cases, single-shot firing can also make the machine gun useful when it is short of bullets. Moreover, if it is fired continuously, the barrel of the machine gun will soon be scrapped due to overheating, which will make the entire machine gun lose its combat effectiveness for a long time.

Replacing a machine gun barrel is still quite troublesome, and you need to wait for the barrel to cool completely before you can replace it. Soldiers on the battlefield don't have any heat-insulating gloves, so if they want to avoid getting their hands burned, they can only wait for the barrel to cool completely.

The time wasted in this round trip was at least half an hour. This also meant that if the machine gun barrel was scrapped, the machine gun would be completely useless for the next half an hour.

Da da da!
Hey!
Hey!
Under the operation of two machine gunners, the Maxim machine gun demonstrated its single-shot and continuous firing modes, and the free switching was quite stable.

This also made the top military officials more satisfied with the Maxim machine gun, and they were even eager to place an order for the Maxim machine gun right away.

If it weren't for the fact that there were related tests to come, I'm afraid the military brass would have already brought Maxim to discuss the order.

It is worth mentioning that although Maxim and others belonged to the Royal Arsenal, the machine gun research and development project team was separate and the Maxim machine gun belonged to the machine gun research and development project team.

The owner of the project team is naturally Carlo. Carlo holds 95% of the shares of the machine gun research and development project team, and the remaining 5% of the shares are divided among other firearms experts.

These experts who develop heavy machine guns will also receive 5% of the profits earned from future heavy machine gun orders.

This was the reward Carlo gave them, and the purpose was to improve their efficiency and give them sufficient motivation to develop and improve machine guns.

Of course, in addition to the 5% stake, there were also some necessary rewards. Carlo was quite satisfied with the machine gun test. After all the tests were completed, Carlo issued a series of rewards including checks and real estate to all the gun experts in the machine gun R&D project team.

As the head of the research and development team, Carlo gave Maxim the most generous reward. Not only did he receive a property in the center of Madrid, he also received a check worth 10,000 pesetas.

(End of this chapter)