Emperor Luo Zhixue wanted to go to the weapons testing site to watch the test firing in person. After learning about this, the heads of the military and the Ministry of Industry felt that since His Majesty wanted to come and see it, they should take the opportunity to make the scale of the weapons test larger. Some other new weapon projects can simply be pulled out for test firing.
So that His Majesty can know their efforts and achievements in recent years.
Especially the five major weapons companies are very enthusiastic about this.
Because every time His Majesty personally inspects weapons test-firing and exhibition activities, it is when the five major weapons companies show their results. If His Majesty's approval is obtained during weapons exhibitions and test-firing, then subsequent promotions will be easy.
Therefore, the five major weapons companies attach great importance to it, and the military also wants to use this weapons exhibition and test firing to gain His Majesty's approval, and then try to gain more support.
This requires purchasing a large number of advanced weapons, which is not an easy task. It not only involves funds, but also involves military tactics and even organizational reforms.
These projects that have a major impact on the military are almost impossible to take place without Luo Zhixue's personal approval.
Therefore, it is important to take advantage of this advanced weapons exhibition and test-firing activities to make His Majesty agree with the series of new tactics and new organizational reforms proposed by the military, mainly the Army.
Of course, this is also because the people in the military do not know that Luo Zhixue actually knows the role of new weapons and new tactics better than they do, and is more looking forward to seeing the army move from the line era to the skirmisher era than they do.
Otherwise, Luo Zhixue wouldn't have wanted to go over and take a look in person after hearing that a breech-loaded rifled weapon was being tested.
The last time Luo Zhixue went to see the test firing of a breech-loaded rifled gun, that was the last time...
The test firing of the breech-loading rifled gun that I watched at that time was not considered a success. At that time, the research progress of the breech-loading rifled gun of Hebei Weapon Company was the fastest, but it failed to solve many problems at that time.
When Hebei Arms Company produced the 32-year-old 75mm field gun, Luo Zhixue did not see the test firing in person.
So this time, since the ministers wanted to expand the scale and show off in front of him, he was willing to follow the trend and planned to take a brief look at some of the existing rifled weapons that had been equipped for testing or were ready to be equipped.
Because of the need to expand the scale, the test firing activities of the 75mm mountain gun were temporarily suspended, waiting for other weapons to join the battle.
Of course, the waiting time will not be too long. After all, the five major weapons companies have important branches and research institutions in Jinling City, and some new weapons actually have samples in Jinling City.
Even if not, there is now convenient railway transportation, and the main R&D institutions and factories of major weapons companies are basically in industrial cities with convenient railway transportation.
The headquarters of Hebei Arms Company is in Tianjin, and it also has important arsenals in Jinan, Shenyang, and Taiyuan.
The headquarters of Jiangnan Arms Company is in Dangtu Industrial Zone, Yingtianfu. In addition, it has factories in Songjiang, Zhenjiang, Zhejiang and Xuzhou in the north of the Yangtze River.
The headquarters of Huguang Arms Company is in Daye Industrial Zone, Tianfu, Han Dynasty. In addition, it has arsenals in Hankou, Changsha, Xiangyang and Chengdu, Sichuan.
The headquarters of the Shaanxi-Gansu Arms Company is in Xi'an, and it also has large arsenals in Zhengzhou, Lanzhou, and Yining.
The headquarters of the Guangdong and Guangxi Arms Company is in Guangzhou, and it also has large arsenals in Nanning, Kunming and other places.
The above mentioned are all large arsenals. If they are small and medium-sized arsenals, especially small arsenals specially established to meet the needs of ammunition supply and gun repair in border towns and areas with inconvenient transportation, then the number can be much larger.
However, the headquarters of major weapons companies are basically in big cities in important areas in the hinterland of the country, such as Yingtian, Hantian, Songjiang, Guangzhou, Tianjin, and Xi'an.
And these cities are all connected by trains.
With the current railway network of the Great Chu Empire, it would not take long to travel to and from these places.
Soon, the five major weapons companies brought their advanced products to the training ground of the Guards on the outskirts of Jinling City. This site was also the weapons testing ground where the Chu Empire had held imperial weapons exhibitions and test firings.
However, unlike previous weapons test firings or exhibitions, where there were many messy weapons and equipment, this weapons exhibition was very simple and pure, with all breech-loaded rifled weapons.
From the Hebei Type 18 rifles and Huguang Type 19 rifles that are currently in batch service, to the Hebei 32-year 75mm field guns, and then there are several types of cavalry revolvers.
Then there are a lot of various breech-loading rifled firearms and artillery that are under development or experimental status.
At the same time, there are not only various standard equipment developed for the military, but also some breech-loading rifled firearms developed for the police, such as police pistols, police breech-loading rifles, etc.
There are more than twenty kinds of military breech-loading firearms alone...including cavalry, infantry, and some short-barreled rifles, etc. The most famous ones are the 18 and 19 types of rifles currently in service. That's just two of them.
After all, the five major weapons companies have always invested a lot of manpower and material resources in the research and development of breech-loading rifled rifles. Hebei Weapons Company and Huguang Weapons Company only have relatively smooth development progress and were the first to successfully develop and obtain orders from the military.
This does not mean that future standard rifles can only be chosen from these two rifles.
At the same time, in addition to ordinary rifles, there are actually many other types of breech-loaded rifled firearms with larger calibers. Shotguns are used for close combat.
Shotguns are especially useful when fighting at close range, especially indoors, in trenches and other complex terrains. Although shotguns have never become a standard large-scale equipment in the Chu army, many grenadier units that undertake assault missions But there will be a small amount of equipment.
At the same time, the police are a big user of shotguns. For patrol officers, holding a big spray gun when enforcing the law is much better than any rifle.
This kind of big troll can knock down a group of people and arrest criminals with one shot at close range, especially when it comes to arresting criminals indoors. This thing is easier to use than pistols and ordinary rifles.
Therefore, even in the era of muzzle-loading muskets, the patrols in the Dachu Empire began to equip shotguns... In fact, they were all modified from traditional 18mm-caliber muzzle-loading muskets, with common barrels. Shorter, fires specialized shotguns.
We don't pursue range and accuracy, but only pursue the ability to kill people at close range!
In addition to various breech-loading rifled rifles, there are also many styles of breech-loading rifled artillery. There are as many as eight types of 75mm artillery projects to be submitted, and every company has At least one model of No. 75 mm artillery was put up for election.
There are dozens of breech-loading firearms and breech-loading artillery. It is naturally impossible for Luo Zhixue to watch the completed test firing process one by one.
After all, the military's regular test firings require hundreds or even thousands of rounds of bullets to be fired continuously. The entire test process will last for many days, and attempts will be made to conduct live ammunition tests in various environments, such as mud, sand, etc. Then conduct live ammunition testing, such as testing under low or high temperature conditions.
You can't always expect to use weapons in a good environment.
In actual combat, the environment in which weapons are used is often very bad... For example, the troops stationed in Siberia in the north are in severe cold for several months of the year, and the local temperature is often tens of degrees below zero. Spend.
In this environment, guns must still be usable.
It cannot be said that guns cannot be used when it is 20 to 30 degrees below zero, right?
Another example is the troops stationed in tropical rainforest areas. They are in a hot and humid state for most of the year. If it is a coastal area, the weapons are also tested by the high salt content of the coast. How to ensure that the weapons are not corroded in this environment? It is very important to ensure that the weapon can still be used in wet mud or even rainy weather.
The various link requirements also caused the Chu army to use the same model of guns and artillery, but in fact the specific models of equipment used by troops in different regions were different.
Even if the rifles equipped in the tropical areas of the South Sea and the rifles equipped in the northern ice fields are the same model, the Chu army will usually subdivide them into the northern version and the tropical version. The specific materials and processes are different, focusing on the performance under different temperatures. .
Of course, this is also because Chu State's basic industry is not up to standard and cannot produce a firearm that can perform well in all environments.
Because many links need to be tested one by one, and it is obviously impossible for Luo Zhixue to see them all, so this time, Luo Zhixue only came to the imperial exhibition for one day, and only saw the test firing of a few of the representative weapons.
Even the test firings of these representative weapons are actually only superficial live ammunition tests. It means firing live ammunition on the spot... and the real live ammunition tests need to be carried out slowly later, and the duration is often relatively long.
On August 26, Luo Zhixue arrived at the Guards training ground on the outskirts of Jinling City and took a large group of officials and generals to see many weapons.
Among them is the Type 18 rifle that has gained quite a reputation and has become the standard rifle of the Guards. It is also equipped on a small scale by the Army. This rifle is developed and produced by the Tianjin Arsenal, a subsidiary of Hebei Arms Company.
It is a very typical breech-loading rifled rifle, using a universal rotating bolt action, single-shot loading, a caliber of 11 mm, and a center-firing flange copper-cased bullet.
It is worth noting that the patents involved in the above characteristics are not owned by Hebei Arms Company, but are general patents owned by the five major arms companies, because the early firearms research of the Dachu Empire included early breech-loading rifles, metal The research on bullets belongs to the Dachu Empire Firearms Research Institute.
Later, after the institute was revoked, all the patents held by the institute were licensed to each of the five major weapons companies.
Therefore, not only Hebei Arms Company can use these patents and technical features, but also the other four arms companies.
Especially in terms of bullets, although the Dachu Empire Army has not yet determined which rifle will be adopted as the next generation standard rifle, the matching bullets have been determined early, which is the 11*60 center firing flange copper case Black powder bullets.
The new generation of rifle bullets from major manufacturers are required to conduct supporting research based on this standard bullet.
Compared with bullets of other designs, this kind of bullet has the advantage of low processing accuracy requirements. At the same time, contemporary revolvers generally use bullets of this design. Of course, the sizes are different... After all, it is impossible to use a rifle with a pistol. This high-power rifle cartridge uses pistol cartridges that are smaller in size and have smaller recoil.
Because flange bullets have the advantage of being easy to process, it is precisely because of this that they have become mainstream and become the standard bullet of the Chu Army.
Of course, the ease of processing is only relatively speaking. In fact, even flanged bullets are not easy to produce for the contemporary Chu State's industrial base, and the processing costs are not low.
As for other types of bullets, the processing cost is higher and the selling price is also higher. However, the army is not the only one in the firearms market of the Chu Empire. There are three military companies. In addition to the three military companies, There are also two policemen and tax policemen.
The weapons purchasing power of local patrol police and tax police is generally delegated to each province.
Therefore, there are dozens of official weapon users alone. The fact that other types of bullets cannot win the favor of the Army does not mean that they cannot win the support of several other military users or the police community.
There is also a private market.
These numerous markets have also supported a large number of firearms projects among the five major weapons companies. It is not to say that the firearms business will die immediately after losing the Army's order.
In fact, even if there is no firearms order from the Army, if it obtains the police market, it will still be quite profitable. For example, the Songjiang Firearms Factory, a subsidiary of Jiangnan Arms Company, rarely supplies to the military and only does police business. and private markets.
Its Qiming brand new-generation shotgun, a brand-new connecting rod rifled shotgun, was officially launched and put on the market in the summer of the 33rd year of Chengshun. It was widely received by the environment as soon as it was launched.
It is especially popular among domestic patrol police. Even if it is not distributed in the police station, many patrol police will find a way to buy one for themselves, then register it and bring it with them as a precaution when going on missions!
In just one year after the launch of this gun, the cumulative sales have reached more than 20,000, and there are a lot of orders... This gun is in short supply!
The market prospect is much greater than that of the star rifle Type 18... Not to mention other places, the Yingtianfu Patrol Office alone has purchased more than 5,000 rifles!
In the private market, this kind of gun is easy to use and extremely powerful at close range. It is also very suitable as a home self-defense firearm. Therefore, the gun has excellent sales in the domestic private market.
As for the money earned...the profit from Qiming's connecting rod shotgun is much greater than your Type 18 rifle.
Therefore, don’t think that in Chu State, weapons companies can only do military business. If the military doesn’t want a firearm, the weapons company will have to close down. In fact, these days, although the military purchases large quantities, the prices are also low. It’s very low and you don’t make much money.
If you really want to make money, you have to look to the domestic police. In addition, the private market is also a very profitable market.
Another one is the export business... Just export the matchlock gun casually, and you can make a lot of money!
So you will see that some arsenals owned by the five major arms companies clearly do not supply the military, and even produce matchlocks and flintlock guns that are backward weapons, but people still live a comfortable life.
Huguang Second Firearms Factory, a subsidiary of the Guangdong and Guangxi Arms Company and located in Dongguan, specializes in the production of flintlocks and matchlocks for export, and its profits are higher than those of the First Firearms Factory, which produces military rifles.
The defense industry and weapons market of the Da Chu Empire is a very complex industry that cannot be discussed simply.
But no matter how complicated it is, winning an order for the Army's next-generation standard rifle is of very important strategic significance to the five major arms companies. Although the Army gives little money, has high requirements, and has a lot of trouble, its orders are huge. ...Orders for first-generation standard rifles start at a minimum of one million!
With such a huge order volume, to be honest, the five major arms companies have to do it even if they don't make money, because even if they don't make money, they can still maintain the production line, maintain a large workforce, and maintain R&D capabilities.
Besides, just because you don’t make money now doesn’t mean you won’t make money in the future!
The cost of weapons will not always be so expensive. As time goes by, technology advances, and production increases, the cost will gradually decrease. When the production cost is brought down in the future, later orders will be profitable. .
This is also the consensus of the five major weapons companies before placing orders for new-generation rifles. That is, according to the current harsh conditions of the Army, you basically can’t expect to make money in the past few years, and even small losses will be regarded as profits.
If you really want to make money, I'm afraid you have to produce hundreds of thousands of them, and it will take five years.
Hebei Arms Company is no exception. This time they gave great sincerity in the quotation for their flagship product, the Type 18 rifle. For the first batch of orders of 200,000 rifles, they gave a unit price of 26 Chu Yuan. The price is almost half compared to the previous price!
But the Army is still dissatisfied with this... because the Huguang Arms Company next door has spent a lot of money to compete for orders with the Type 19 rifle that uses a lifting bolt, and the price given is even lower: twenty-three Chu Yuan!
And there is no test equipment yet, and it is still in the state of small-scale test firing. The Jiangnan A-6 rifle developed and produced by Jiangnan Weapons Company is, well, also a rotating rear-loading single-shot rifle.
As a latecomer, in order to gain an advantage, he directly quoted 22 Chu Yuan... and said that if the Army was willing to increase the order to 500,000 units, the price could be lowered to 20 Chu Yuan.
Jiangnan Arms Company directly lowered the price to twenty yuan... This also put great pressure on the other four companies.
This made Hebei Arms Company, which was originally full of confidence, feel a huge crisis!
Although their Type 18 rifle has been equipped with the Guards one step ahead and has become the standard rifle of the Guards. It has also been equipped with a small amount of the Army, and its performance is definitely not bad... But if there is no huge price in this bidding, I am afraid that the order will really be taken away by other companies.
After all, those guys in the Army are all out of money now... Some Army generals even shamelessly said that although each company's breech-loading rifles have their own advantages and disadvantages, their performance is very good, and the Army expressed their satisfaction. Satisfied, in the end, the biggest impact on Army procurement is price besides price!
This makes Hebei Arms Company very helpless... Let alone twenty-two Chuyuan, even if the price is twenty-two Chuyuan, they will still lose money!
And Jiangnan Weapon Company’s so-called twenty Chu Yuan must have cut corners.
Damn it, this is forcing us to cut corners and produce defective products for your Army!
As a result, Hebei Arms Company was also cruel and began to cut corners in some places. For example, the wooden gun stock will not directly affect the performance, but the price can be much lower if the wood is replaced with inferior wood. And there is a bayonet. The specifications of this thing can also be lowered a little. There is no need to give it to the army's gangsters. It uses the most advanced new generation steel bayonet. Just give them the previous generation product.
(Historically, Mauser 1871 was purchased in the late Qing Dynasty. Some of the orders were due to lack of funds and they took the initiative to purchase defective non-core parts. The price was only about half of the normal price. It was cheap and affordable, and it was still a good deal.)
Other details can be saved as much as possible. In the end, the price can be lowered a lot. In the end, in line with the concept of not making any money or even making a small loss, but also squeezing out the peers, we will make another round of price cuts at a loss.
Hebei Arms Company has quoted a new price for their Type 18 rifles. No more twenty-six, not twenty-three-four, not even twenty, just eighteen Chuyuan!
At eighteen Chu Yuan, your army will be able to get the most advanced and top-notch breech-loading rifle!
Moreover, the initial order quantity can reach 500,000 units, and subsequent orders must be handed over to Hebei Arms Company. At the same time, if a part of the purchase funds are paid first, the price can be negotiated later.
Even if it is the fifteen Chu Yuan that your army hopes for, it is not impossible.
Hearing this price, the Army was shamefully moved!
In the final analysis, the Army still wants to equip the Type 18 rifle, which has been tested in actual combat and has excellent test data in all aspects, but it was just too expensive before.
If the price can be lowered now, the Army will abandon several other weapons companies without hesitation and start to hook up with Hebei Weapons Company. This will make the other four weapons companies very angry!
Damn, those guys from the Army, what kind of public bidding is this? They just used their four companies to lower the price for Hebei Arms Company.
But if you don't like it, you can't help it... The price offered by Hebei Arms Company, they honestly can't do it... they can't even do it at a loss.
After all, Hebei Arms Company already had an order for 70,000 to 80,000 rifles, which diluted part of the cost and also had a first-mover advantage. This cost control was not bad.
Even if they cut corners on non-important parts, they still can't match the price of Hebei Arms Company. If they have to do it, they can only significantly reduce some of the core performance of the firearm... If they do this, the Army is not stupid... If you cut corners on appearance or non-important parts, the Army will not care. They will even encourage you to do so to reduce costs... after all, it will not affect the core combat performance.
But if you have to cut corners on core components, the Army won’t want it.
After some bidding, the Hebei Arms Company's improved Type 18 successfully won a large order from the Army, thus officially becoming the Army's next-generation standard rifle.
What followed closely was the artillery project. The 75mm mountain gun project carefully prepared by Hebei Arms Company was defeated by the 75mm mountain gun project of Huguang Arms Company, which cast a shadow over the company's army artillery development. !
(End of chapter)
