Starting with the smashing of Dunkirk

Chapter 35: The rear door of this submachine gun is rather loose, and there is a possibility of leaks of gas or fire.
After Schmeisser made his rebuttal, the company owner, Bergman, sensed that things were about to go wrong.

"Old Schmeisser is so inflexible... This is His Highness the Duke representing him to discuss projects and place orders." Bergman couldn't help but think to himself, quickly considering how to salvage the situation.

Fortunately, Lelouch was young and didn't care much about saving face. He just chuckled and offered a way out:
"Mr. Schmeisser, I don't think I meant to insult the quality of your company's products. Of course, the designs and production of your company are all of the highest quality. But now it's wartime, and we need a more agile response. We can't keep the soldiers on the front lines waiting for three more months in the midst of gunfire, can we?"
I fought my way through mountains of corpses and seas of blood in Neoport! I know what the soldiers on the front lines need most! The day my company arrived in Neoport, three divisions of the Billy Kings tried to break out to the east! I led my men in a desperate hold-off until a regiment of reinforcements arrived, and then, with just one regiment, we fought against five enemy divisions for three days and three nights! That's how we finally annihilated the Billy Kings army!

Lelouch doesn't usually like to show off his achievements. But the old designer in front of him was clearly a bit old-fashioned and rigid, and Lelouch certainly didn't want to be looked down upon.

He had to emphasize that he represented the most valiant soldiers on the front lines, making an urgent request that could not be delayed.

Upon hearing this, old Schmeisser was filled with respect, and the rest of his words stuck in his throat, leaving him unsure of what to say.

Bergman was also slightly surprised. As a businessman, he didn't pay much attention to the details of the battle on the front lines. He only knew that they had won a recent battle, but he didn't know who had won it.

This officer definitely has a bright future ahead of him!

He quickly smiled ingratiatingly and said, "Captain Lelouch, don't worry, Schmeisser is definitely not refusing you. Anyway, this batch of products is just a trial production sample, so you can have whatever you want it to look like... We can discuss how to finalize it for mass production later."

Seeing that Bergman had given in, Lelouch once again extended an olive branch: "Of course I know the hardships of your business world; brand value cannot be tarnished. How about this, I have a suggestion for you—Bergman can fund a subsidiary, then put it under a different brand, specifically to produce experimental firearms."

Once the design is finalized and mass production begins, the parent company can provide a licensing fee to offset the R&D costs, or they can create a premium version—either way, it's fine. The battlefield will ultimately show the producers what constitutes a good weapon.

In later generations, there are countless companies that set up subsidiaries to create low-end brands, so a time traveler like Lelouch could immediately come up with a similar solution.

But this approach was extremely rare in the early 20th century. Bergman hesitated for a moment before finally deciding: "This method is indeed flexible. How about this, we, Bergman, will invest 50 marks to establish a subsidiary to trial-produce new weapons."

"Captain Lelouch, you can invest through technical consulting, and we'll also provide partial funding, giving you a 10% stake. The Barea royal family, based on previously acquired technical data and subsequent committed orders, will hold a 15% stake; I'll handle the details, but you won't need to invest cash. The remaining 75% will be held by Bergman."

No wonder Bergman hesitated for so long; it turns out he was thinking about how to align his interests, and decided to simply give up some of the "phantom shares" of the new company.

Anyway, this subsidiary only has 50 marks in capital, and Lelouch's 5 mark stake based on his technical support isn't too unreasonable. If production is to be expanded later, more capital will be needed, and Lelouch's 5 mark stake will definitely be diluted.

However, if Lelouch proves capable and can provide more technical support solutions later, then his technology can be used as equity. In short, everything is very flexible and can be adjusted based on future contributions.

"I only brought you a few blueprints and gave you a few suggestions, and you think I'm worth 50,000 marks?" Lelouch couldn't help but ask, seeing that the other party was quite helpful and had saved him a lot of trouble.

In Lelouch's original plan, he didn't intend to gain much personal benefit from this light machine gun improvement and submachine gun development. As long as he could get a quick cash reward and gain the Duke's trust in his vision in the military industry, he could complete his initial capital accumulation, and that would be enough.

As for whether or not to personally get involved in the military industry in the future, that's a matter for later.

He doesn't have a trusted inner circle yet, and as a military officer, he's stretched thin. The fact that a boss in the military industry is willing to extend an olive branch, allowing him to share some profits without having to manage anything, is already the best option for him.

Bergman readily affirmed, "Fifty thousand marks is only the price of a few dozen machine guns. Your contribution is worth that price, and I believe you know more than just this much. We desperately need an advisor like you who is knowledgeable and fully understands the real needs of the front lines."

The cost of one MG08 heavy machine gun is about 700 marks, so 50,000 marks is the price of 80 heavy machine guns.

For a firearms company, investing this amount of money in a promising stock is definitely worthwhile, especially since the excuse has already been presented to them.

After confirming that none of this was against the rules, Lelouch said frankly, "Since Mr. Bergman has put it this way, I can now give you a few more suggestions."

First, to expedite production, the heat dissipation sleeves of these first batch of trial-produced light machine guns could be made even simpler. For example, instead of the original four-sided heat dissipation sleeve, only the symmetrical left and right sides could be retained, while the top and bottom sides could be omitted entirely. This would make maintenance easier, and retaining the left and right sides would only be for testing the heat dissipation effect in actual combat.

The firearms we produced this time were mainly for winter combat, where the heat dissipation environment is relatively better, so we can leave some margin for error. The Bilikin battlefield is muddy and flooded everywhere, so as long as we ensure that the front of the barrel can be easily drained, dried, and used after being submerged in water, that's sufficient.

Similarly, I heard you're also working on a short-range automatic weapon that uses low-powered ammunition, let's call it a 'submachine gun'—is this project also stuck on the issue of heat dissipation? I think for winter combat, we can ignore the heat dissipation sleeve problem and just build it up and use it first.

"Once winter is over, and we need to change environments for the next battle, we can bring it back and modify it. This way, we can simultaneously develop and finalize the design while collecting battlefield feedback data."

Lelouch's advice would be a valuable golden rule elsewhere.

Later generations developed a large number of "agile working methods" to accelerate scientific research progress, constantly updating and iterating small versions.

This would have been completely unimaginable to the perfectionist entrepreneurs of the early 20th century. But given a good testing environment, it can genuinely improve research efficiency.

Lelouch astutely grasped the meteorological characteristics of this winter operation, as well as the geographical environment of the Biligin battlefield, which was flooded after the flood.

We should advise manufacturers to first develop the basic version with poor compatibility, and then work on a version that is compatible with summer and hot, dry environments.

Old Schmeisser was utterly bewildered. He was in his late sixties, nearing seventy, a man close to retirement, and simply couldn't comprehend such a radically disruptive approach to his life's work.

Hugo Schmeisser, however, was not yet forty years old. He was still in his prime, with amazing learning abilities. After listening to Lelouch's words, he genuinely felt that he had benefited greatly. He quickly asked a bunch of questions, all about principles rather than practical applications. Lelouch answered almost every question, occasionally throwing out a few common sense about scientific research management from later generations, which made Hugo Schmeisser admire him even more.

Before leaving, Hugo Schmeisser did not forget to ask him a specific question:
"Captain Lelouch, I will expedite the 'submachine gun' project as you requested. However, there is still a difficulty in this project that cannot be overcome for the time being, so it is estimated that it will not be completed within six months—you would not expect to put the submachine gun prototype into actual combat testing in two months, would you?"

Lelouch didn't want to interfere too much with the specific technical issues, but hearing how troubled the other party was, he had no choice but to listen: "What specific difficulties are you facing? Tell me and we can discuss them together."

Hugo Schmeisser noted: "The biggest change between submachine guns and machine guns is that they use low-powered pistol bullets, but these bullets also have a smaller propellant charge and less recoil from the propellant gases. It is almost impossible to push open and unlock the current bolt mechanism stably."

So I've been trying to design a completely new bolt action, but as you know, once something has to be redesigned from scratch, time becomes unpredictable. I can show you what my current, failed bolt action design looks like.”

As Hugo Schmeisser spoke, he actually had his assistant go back to the laboratory to fetch the blueprints, which he then spread out directly in front of Lelouch.

He didn't expect the other party to provide a solution; he just hoped that Lelouch would recognize the difficulty and give the project more time, and not have too high expectations.

Lelouch frowned after reading it.

It's surprising how complex the early design blueprints for the MP18 submachine gun were, making its bolt mechanism extremely difficult to manufacture. Even if it were produced, it would be very heavy, almost as heavy as a machine gun bolt, making it completely unsuitable for a lightweight submachine gun.

He looked at it more carefully, and although he didn't understand the technical details very well, he still figured out a key point: the reason why Schmeisser took so many detours at the beginning was because he was still obsessed with "the bolt being able to lock stably and absolutely when the bullet is fired".

In layman's terms, the gun design philosophy at the time was to make submachine guns like machine guns, where the bolt must be fixed in place and not move when the bullet is first fired, so as to ensure that the chamber pressure does not leak and the propulsive force of the propellant gas is not wasted.

The bolt is only allowed to recoil and eject the spent cartridge case and load a new round after the bullet has flown forward a short distance.

But Lelouch knew history. He knew that decades later, many submachine guns, in order to simplify their structure, directly adopted "inertial locking," such as the MP38/40. This meant abandoning even a moment of "absolute locking," allowing the bolt to recoil synchronously as soon as the primer of the bullet was ignited, and for some of the propellant gas to leak out immediately.

However, once this obsession is abandoned, the design of the bolt locking mechanism can actually be simplified a lot.

The manufacturer initially hesitated to design it this way, partly because they hadn't considered it, and partly because they feared the military wouldn't accept it—because that way, propellant gases or flashes might leak from the back of the barrel when fired. If frontline soldiers refused to use it, fearing burns to their hands or being hit in the face by ejected cartridge cases, and complained about the weapon, the manufacturer would also face considerable trouble.

Fortunately, Lelouch is the military representative today, and he can accept certain specific "quality defects" on behalf of the military.

So after considering everything, he came up with a solution: "I think the problem with the bolt locking mechanism isn't that difficult to solve. Our military can try lowering the requirements: I'll allow gas and flash to leak from behind the barrel; at worst, the soldiers can wear fire-resistant leather gloves to avoid getting burned."

A slightly lower chamber pressure, wasting a little of the propellant gas thrust, is fine. We don't expect this new gun to be as precise as a rifle or machine gun, capable of killing targets 1000 meters away. It only needs to be able to kill targets within 100-200 meters, so the wasted chamber pressure is perfectly acceptable! Weapon development doesn't need to strive for perfection; it just needs to meet specific battlefield requirements!

After hearing this, Hugo Schmeisser's understanding of "the client" was once again refreshed.

He had never seen anyone representing the military as the "client" make such a flimsy request.

They don't even care about low chamber pressure, wasted gas, or leaks?
He quickly came up with a solution and tentatively asked, "Then... if that's the case, can I just adjust a spring with the perfect stiffness and use it to hold the bolt in place? Once the bullet is fired and the propellant gas recoils, the spring that normally holds the bolt will give way and naturally retract, allowing a new cartridge to be loaded?"

Lelouch was satisfied with his quick reaction and stood up to pat Schmeisser on the shoulder: "Very good! You need that kind of daring spirit! Don't be afraid of being embarrassed by 'using a spring as a bolt locking mechanism.' As long as it's practical, there's nothing shameful about it!"

(Note: The image above is a schematic diagram of a blowback breech mechanism. The breech has no locking mechanism; it is held in place only by a spring. When the gas pressure inside the barrel is high, the breech forces the spring open to eject the spent cartridge case. This is the simplest breech ejection mechanism, but the trade-off is that it is prone to gas leakage.)
Hugo Schmeisser was greatly encouraged. After mentally assessing the project's progress, he gritted his teeth and said:
"If all this is possible... I might be able to produce a prototype within a month and a half! However, the trial production speed will definitely be slower than that of a light machine gun, and even if a prototype is produced, not many can be manufactured."

"It's alright, just do your best. The Barea military will give you an unimaginably large order!" Lelouch gave a final word of encouragement, and the matter was considered settled.

Submachine guns shouldn't be made too expensive in the first place. More than twenty years later, the people of Burkina Faso dared to make even cheap Sten rifles that cost five pounds.

Lelouch was simply helping those Demanian designers, who were originally striving for perfection, to let go of some of their mental burdens.

The rear door of this submachine gun may be a bit loose, and there may be problems with gas or fire when firing, but its low cost, high reliability, and ease of use can completely make up for this.

Let's wait until the product is more mature before pursuing roller-locked bolt action or other high-end products.

-

PS: Another 8,000 words today... I thought that farming should yield results before ending the chapter, so I couldn't bear to end it in the middle.

Please leave comments, follow updates, add to your favorites, and vote for my new book. I don't know why, but I lost over a hundred followers yesterday; maybe it's because the war scenes have temporarily ended.

Please be patient, I will try to update more frequently and at a faster pace.

(End of this chapter)