In October of the 25th year of Chengshun, at the Guards training ground in Jinling City, Luo Zhixue, who had just watched the Guards exercise, took a group of generals to the weapons testing ground next door.
Today's event included not only Guards exercises, but also viewing of various new weapons.
Luo Zhixue has always attached great importance to military equipment. In addition to inspections at arsenals, Luo Zhixue also regularly holds exhibitions and experimental sessions on new weapons.
This is the case today. While they are out inspecting the Guards' exercises, the defense industry also wants to show His Majesty their research results over the years and obtain His Majesty's approval.
After all, although each service branch decides on its own what weapons to purchase, there is still an Emperor Luo Zhixue above them. If a new weapon can be approved by His Majesty, orders will come in loudly.
Therefore, today's occasion has received great attention from the seven major weapons companies. All kinds of new equipment have been brought over, and even some concept weapons that are still in the research stage have been brought out.
In this way, Luo Zhixue saw a dazzling array of equipment, not just weapons, but also a large number of various military equipment.
The tour is conducted according to categories. The first thing you see after entering the venue is the firearms venue. Various types of firearms and ammunition are the well-deserved core weapons of the Dachu Empire's military.
Its importance is comparable to that of artillery and battleships.
Therefore, in exhibitions over the years, firearms and corresponding ammunition are all in the same venue.
After entering the firearms venue, Luo Zhixue glanced over and saw hundreds of types of firearms, including rifles, lances, pistols, etc.
At this time, Ji Dehua, Minister of Industry, was introducing basic information to Luo Zhixue. This man had already been assigned to serve as counselor in the imperial study room for military and political affairs for one year, and became one of the nine most powerful counselors in the Chu Empire.
When an official reaches this level, his actual position cannot be promoted, because if he goes up any higher, he will be the emperor of Luo Zhixue...
However, there are still many things that require competition, such as the power struggle in the royal study, some disputes over political ideas, and false honors.
For example, the current Ji Dehua, in his capacity as Minister of Counselor, was awarded the title of First Grade Crown Prince and Grand Master last year. This is also a title that ministers of counselors can generally obtain.
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But whether you can go up to the next level and be awarded the title of Junior Master or even the 'Grand Master', which represents the highest honor for civil servants, depends on your performance.
Currently, the counselors of the Great Chu Empire are generally awarded the title of first-grade crown prince and grand master when they are in office. Officials in the judicial system are awarded the title of crown prince and Taifu, and military generals are awarded the title of crown prince and Taibao.
Generally speaking, the title of First Grade is the limit.
However, there are also a few ministers who can take their titles to the next level through their outstanding political achievements, and then become the first-class young master, young master, and young protector. There are also a very few who can achieve the higher level of Taishi, Taifu, or Taibao. .
For example, Guo Quanshu, the former Grand Master of the Chu Empire, Minister of Counseling, and long-term Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, was seriously ill and unable to serve as a director at the beginning of this year. Years of hard work and loyalty to the king.
Grand Master, this is the highest title that a civil servant can obtain in the Chu Empire.
Of course, this is also because Guo Quanshu's health is already very bad. The hospital said that he may not be able to survive for long. As a monarch, Luo Zhixue naturally knows what Guo Quanshu will never forget in his life.
It's nothing more than wanting the highest honor of a minister, the position of Grand Master!
This is a senior minister who has followed him to conquer the country. He has not made any mistakes for more than 20 years. He is also very cooperative with Luo Zhixue in the administration of officials, and he has taken a lot of blame for Luo Zhixue.
For such a courtier, Luo Zhixue would naturally not let him live with regrets until his death.
Therefore, he was awarded the title of Grand Master before he became seriously ill and became an official. He became the only Grand Master still alive in the political arena of the Chu Empire.
Luo Zhixue had been awarded the title of Grand Master several times before, but either posthumously or on his deathbed. This also resulted in the fact that the only grand master still alive in the Chu Empire was Guo Quanshu for the time being.
As a civil servant, Ji Dehua naturally wanted to be like Guo Quanshu one day and obtain the title of Grand Master before his death... Well, although it is unlikely, as a person, you have to pursue something.
He is already a very popular minister. If he doesn't pursue the Grand Master, to be honest, he has nothing to pursue. He can't rebel.
And Luo Zhixue is also very aware of this... so in so many years, he has only awarded five titles of Grand Master!
Only Guo Quanshu was awarded the title during his lifetime, and the other four were awarded posthumously.
Not to mention Grand Master, even Young Master Luo Zhixue has extremely strict control and rarely grants awards.
He must make it more difficult to be promoted to Grand Master or even Junior Master. As for the ultimate title of Grand Master, even if the ministers are qualified, they have to wait until they die to be awarded it posthumously. The greatest grace is to wait until you are about to die.
The difficulty of the Young Master is lower, but it is still very difficult.
If these two titles were awarded early, what rewards would he use to reward his officials in the future?
As a king, what you fear most is not that your ministers will perform meritorious service, but that you will not be able to seal them!
For the same reason, the title of Taifu in the judicial system and the title of Taibao of military generals are extremely difficult.
The three top titles of the Three Imperial Divisions, regardless of civil and military affairs, regardless of how much credit you have, but if you are not dead or about to die, don't count on it.
At the same time, these three top titles are, to some extent, Luo Zhixue's final verdict on a political elder.
If you have not made extraordinary political achievements, don’t expect these three major titles. They will not be given to you even if you die...
As one of the current top civil servants of the Chu Empire, Ji Dehua naturally hopes that one day he can obtain the highest honor of a minister, so that he will have no regrets in his life.
Although it is very difficult, it is not impossible. For example, if you can be granted the title of Young Master while serving as Minister of Counseling, then you may be granted the title of Grand Master when you die.
For the title of young master, Ji Dehua has been busy every day in the past few years, and he has been worried about the industrial development of the Chu Empire.
The national defense industry is also a development direction that Ji Dehua focuses on.
After all, the quality of the national defense industry is directly related to the combat effectiveness of the empire's three armies, and also to the empire's external expansion. This is an important industry that will directly affect the global strategy of the Dachu Empire, and Ji Dehua has no choice but to care.
It can even be said that the national defense industry is actually the most important component of the Ministry of Industry, because the Ministry of Industry of the Dachu Empire is said to be an administrative agency, but in fact it is essentially a group company...
There are three major categories of its subordinate businesses. The first is very special weapons production and manufacturing. The second is basic industrial industries such as coal mines, steel, chemicals, shipbuilding, machinery, etc. The third is some infrastructure industries related to people's livelihood, such as Shipping, public transportation in various cities, water supply, docks, urban construction, etc.
The defense industry is not just the seven major arms companies, but also includes steel, machinery, chemicals, shipbuilding, etc.
To a certain extent, the seven major weapons companies are actually assembly plants. The materials they use are provided by major steel companies and chemical companies, and the equipment they use are provided by major machinery companies.
The national defense industry is not independent, but is rooted in the entire industrial system of the Chu Empire. Only with a strong industrial system can we create such a behemoth as the Hantian battleship!
With the support of the entire industrial system, the Dangtu Arsenal, a subsidiary of Jiangnan Arms Company, was able to produce Mini rifle prototypes in a laboratory production model at a huge cost.
In this way, there are these Mini rifles that Luo Zhixue sees now.
Without the support of the entire industrial system, a Dangtu arsenal alone would not be able to produce this kind of top-notch industrial product that almost represents the material and finishing fields of the Da Chu Empire.
Although this is just a front-loading rifled gun, the requirements for this thing on the industrial system are no less than those of a high-pressure steam engine.
The Mini rifles in front of me are veritable flowers of industry.
It is precisely because of their prominence that they became the first target of Luo Zhixue's inspection today.
Looking at the three Mini rifle prototypes placed on the table in front of him, Luo Zhixue said yes several times in a row.
Even though he knew very well that this kind of rifle could not be mass-produced based on the current technical level of the Dachu Empire, and the price of small-scale laboratory production was sky-high, it didn't matter.
Because technology will continue to advance, mass production is not possible now. Maybe it will be possible in three to five years?
The important thing is that now that he has a prototype gun, he can make the generals behind him realize the huge tactical and even strategic role of rifled rifles in advance.
This front-loading rifled rifle produced by Dangtu Arsenal is named 'Frontline Sixteenth Rifle', which is a design code name.
It is worth noting that this rifle was not designed by Dangtu Arsenal, but by experts from the Firearms Research Institute directly under the Ministry of Industry. The code name is actually the sixteenth type of muzzle-loading rifled gun.
Frontline does not mean the frontline of the war, but the abbreviation of muzzleloading rifle.
After Luo Zhixue picked up the Type 16 rifle, he found that the weight and dimensions of the gun were similar to the Type 21 percussion rifle. At the same time, the bolt structure was also the typical flash cap firing mechanism of the Type 21.
But there was an obvious difference on the scale. Luo Zhixue saw the scale above, and the distance marked was up to one thousand meters. This was completely different from the previous musket, which only had a scale distance of two to three hundred meters.
In fact, there is no need to set the ruler of the musket too far because the accuracy of the musket is too poor. The shooting accuracy after the distance exceeds one hundred meters is no longer guaranteed. As for the distance above three hundred meters, there is no need to aim at all. Anyway, no matter what you do I can't hit you even if I aim...
However, rifled guns are different. Rifled guns can ensure shooting accuracy within hundreds of meters. If covered shooting is performed, several hundred meters is also possible.
This is also the reason why the Type 16 rifle has a full kilometer scale.
The above are not the biggest features of this rifle. The biggest feature is that the rifle has three riflings in the barrel!
In fact, these three riflings are not the essence of this rifle. It is just a rifling. This is not too difficult for the technology industry of the Dachu Empire.
The real point is that when Luo Zhixue put a cavity lead bullet lying beside him into the muzzle of the gun, the gap between the lead bullet and the barrel was very small.
The gap between the bullet and the barrel is not only extremely small, but also requires that all guns and bullets be interchangeable, and the tolerances are controlled to an extremely small level. This is the essence of this rifle and the real technology of rifled rifles. The difficulty is the biggest challenge to the industrial sector of the Da Chu Empire.
And these, in fact, cannot be seen with the naked eye!
Many of them were explained by the technical experts next to them, saying that in order to control errors, they specially used laboratory equipment for processing... and this kind of laboratory equipment is not ordinary industrial equipment, it is all customized by Hantian Machinery Company. , the price of one unit can easily start at tens of thousands, and the processing output is also extremely low...
Because this thing is laboratory equipment, the pursuit is ultimate precision, not output.
If Luo Zhixue had not asked the laboratory to produce hundreds of front-loading rifled guns, and the Guards directly used the reserve funds, they would have given a total of 300,000 Chu Yuan.
Even if the Dangtu Arsenal were to die, they would not be willing to use these sophisticated laboratory equipment to produce rifles... That equipment is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars... Who would dare to waste it like this in normal times?
Producing this batch of sixteen rifles not only consumes expensive equipment life, but also requires very high materials. This barrel is not comparable to the barrels of previous smoothbore guns.
Well... although the barrel material of the smoothbore gun can also be made... but the equipment cost of hundreds of thousands has been spent, so there is no need to waste tens of thousands more Chu Yuan on using more advanced materials to make the barrel.
The barrels of this batch are directly made of the most advanced steel materials at present, and adopt drilling processing technology.
This series has led to the fact that these Type 16 rifles may seem inconspicuous, but they represent the current top-notch materials and processing techniques of the Da Chu Empire.
After all this trouble, the production cost of these hundreds of Type 16 rifles has actually reached a very terrifying level.
If it weren't for the fact that the Guards were taking advantage of the situation, Dangtu Arsenal wouldn't be engaging in such a loss-making business.
Luo Zhixue took a closer look at the Type 16 rifle in his hand, then put it down, and then said: "Assign someone to try this gun!"
Although Luo Zhixue knew that the performance of this gun was very good, he had never seen it with his own eyes, so he still wanted to see the actual shooting test.
Today's inspection occasion naturally involves various live ammunition tests. The Guards have already negotiated arrangements with the Ministry of Industry.
Soon, Guards soldiers came forward and began to design live ammunition at the target ahead.
Although this thing is a rifled rifle, it is still a muzzle-loading rifle. Although the bullets used are special expanding lead bullets, the loading process is no different from that of the Type 21 percussion gun.
After the soldiers finished loading, they fired at the target about 100 meters ahead. After ten shots, they reported that ten of the ten bullets hit the target accurately. This result is naturally not something ordinary soldiers can achieve. The soldiers who fired live ammunition were all carefully selected musketeers from the Guards. Their marksmanship was quite good, and they had actually been trained with a prototype of this Mini rifle before.
Well, that's right. Before Luo Zhixue's inspection, the Type 16 rifle had actually been tested with live ammunition many times, and the test results were quite good. That's why this rifle appeared in front of Luo Zhixue and served as the basis for today's inspection. the highlight.
Subsequently, the target distance was once again extended to two hundred meters, three hundred meters, even four hundred meters or even five meters for live ammunition testing.
The results are quite good. Although the target hit rate at the 400-meter distance is not high, and at 500 meters, none of the shots hit. However, this is still a very outstanding result, because at the 300-meter target, the target is still Good accuracy is maintained.
Moreover, the failure to hit at a distance of four to five hundred meters does not mean that the gun is not strong, but more due to the limitations of the human body.
This has nothing to do with the accuracy of marksmanship, because human sight has its limits. At a distance of four to five hundred meters, the target is actually very small. It is difficult to see clearly, let alone aim and shoot accurately.
Even in the 21st century, infantrymen use rifles with higher accuracy. In the absence of a scope, it is still difficult to hit a target four to five hundred meters away. This distance is usually the shooting distance of a sniper.
This elite soldier of the Guards, without the assistance of a high-magnification scope, used a Type 16 rifle that was far less accurate in later generations. He was able to shoot at a distance of 300 meters with only a ruler and crosshair. If you maintain a relatively high target rate, you are already considered a genius shooter!
Needless to say, I must have gone through intensive live-fire training with the Type 16 prototype rifle and mastered some of the characteristics of this rifle before being able to do this.
Through live ammunition testing, we can basically know that the accurate and effective range of this rifle is only about 300 meters. Of course, if it is an actual battle formation and uses intensive barrages to kill, this distance can be relaxed to 400 meters or even Five hundred meters.
Because many times, dozens or even hundreds of soldiers lined up and fired at a large target, such as an enemy formation.
At this time, the effective range is much longer than the precise shooting range of a single gun... If you use it boldly and don't pursue the popularity of the people too much, you can even reach a range of several hundred meters longer... This range is better than those of the indigenous people. The effective range of artillery is much longer.
Among the series of 115mm field artillery specially exported by the Dachu Empire, the best-performing one is only supplied to a few special indigenous countries. The effective range is basically only about 700 to 800 meters... while those with poorer performance can only be used for high-end artillery. The 115mm field gun with the outlet open has an effective range of only five to six hundred meters.
This Type 16 rifle, in actual combat, can use intensive firepower to directly carry out devastating blows to enemy artillery...
In Luo Zhixue's opinion, the performance of this Type 16 rifle is already quite good.
Unfortunately, the output is too low and the cost is too high. It cannot be equipped in large quantities for the time being. We can only set up a test camp for front-loading rifled guns first.
However, when technology advances in the future, Luo Zhixue will definitely equip the army with rifled weapons on a large scale, but by then it may not be a front-loading rifled gun like the Mini rifle, but a breech-loading rifled gun.
Because now, there is actually a prototype of a breech-loading rifled gun, which is in the booth next to the Type 16 rifle booth.
It is also a design work belonging to the Firearms Research Institute. In the field of firearms research, the Firearms Research Institute of the Ministry of Industry of the Dachu Empire is still very strong.
"This breech-loading rifle is an improvement and development based on the Type 16 front-loading rifle. It follows the three-rifle structure of the Type 16 rifle, and the tail structure adopts a bolt-action locking structure."
“In terms of ammunition, we use a newly developed integral paper shell ammunition. This integral ammunition combines a flash cap, propellant and bullets. When shooting, you only need to load the bullets and then click the button. Just pull the trigger and fire!"
Luo Zhixue looked at the rifle in front of him and felt that this thing was almost the same as the single-shot bolt-action rifles he knew. It seemed that the technicians finally adopted their own opinions and developed the rear attachment based on the bolt-action structure. Rifled rifle.
But now even the front-loading rifled gun has not been developed smoothly, and the breech-loading rifled gun can be produced. How do they solve the problem of air locking? Are there any remnants of paper casings from paper-cased ammunition? Black powder residue and many other issues?
Nowadays, if you want to make a breech-loading rifle, you need to solve many more problems than a front-loading rifle.
Sure enough, after careful questioning, the technicians on the side said that this was just a concept product and could not be used for live firing because the air leakage problem was still serious, and they were still studying how to further reduce the air leakage.
When Luo Zhixue heard this, they didn't even dare to carry out live ammunition shooting, so he basically guessed how serious the air leakage problem was...
The air leakage problem of breech-loading rifles has always been a difficult problem to solve, and Luo Zhixue actually did not expect to finally solve it by providing processing accuracy and other means.
In fact, it is difficult to solve the air leakage problem by relying on the gun itself, because no matter what the locking mechanism is, it is a movable part. Since it is a movable part, there will definitely be a gap... When the gun is fired, the gunpowder burns The high-temperature and high-pressure gas generated later will leak out along this gap.
Not to mention the current Chu Empire or the countries in the 19th century in history, even in the 21st century, when developing caseless bullets, it is still difficult to completely solve the air leakage problem!
This is also because firearms that use caseless bullets are not widely equipped in the 21st century...cannot solve the air leakage problem!
Historically, the real solution to the air leakage problem was to rely on fixed-loading of metal cartridge cases...
