In the winter of the 41st year of Chengshun, Grays Harbor, Kingdom of England, Europe.
The Kingdom of England today is very different from the Kingdom of England a few years ago. It has shrunk from the Kingdom that once occupied most of the British Isles to only an area in southern England.
Since the war with the Chu people, the British Islands region has evolved into a five-kingdom structure, and many coastal port cities and islands such as Dover have been ceded to the Chu Empire as colonies.
Among them, Grace, west of London and at the mouth of the Thames River, was selected by the Chu Empire as a major colonial port for construction because of its relatively good port conditions and the fact that it also guarded the English Channel, and stationed some troops and warships there.
Well, this place is at the mouth of the Thames River, and when the Chu people asked for the colony, they not only wanted one side, but the places on both sides of the river, including this section of the river... In other words, this place, including the river, already belongs to If you are a native of Chu, even if you are a British person traveling from London, you must obtain permission from the Chu people and pay import and export duties...
When the Chu people established colonies overseas, they liked to directly block the inland river entrances of these indigenous countries... When they were in Siam at the earliest, they directly built Bangkok, directly blocking both sides of the river, including the river sections. It was so obtained that if the Siamese wanted to go to sea, they had to pay tolls to the Chu people...
Then the Chu people discovered that this method of establishing colonial strongholds directly at the mouth of inland rivers was very useful. Not only did it save worry and effort, but it could also better control the import and export of colonial countries and restrain them from developing maritime power.
So this kind of thing is often done overseas.
Of course, whether it is Grace, Dover, or several other colonial ports in England, to the Chu Empire, they are actually just small ports in overseas colonies, and there are not even many Chu people. Here, so far, the Chu people have only garrisoned less than 5,000 troops in England, and these troops have to be dispersed and deployed in six colonial port cities.
What's more important is that these forces are still being reduced... The European Expeditionary Force Command is planning to deploy some more troops from the British side to the Baltic Sea near Russia.
The European Expeditionary Force Headquarters plans to start solving the Russian problem after the end of the new year and the beginning of spring... because Russia is already the last country in Europe that has not reached a market opening agreement with the Chu Empire!
In November of the 41st year of Chengshun, Russia once again rejected the market opening agreement proposed by the empire... What the Russians meant was that territory could be ceded, compensation could even be paid, leased land could be granted, and the Chu Empire could also be granted permission. Products are sold in Russia, and a series of conditions such as recognition of the extra-legal jurisdiction of the Chu people!
However, tariff autonomy and military passage rights must not be given!
Other benefits will be given if they are transferred, but once the tariff autonomy is really given, the huge Russia will instantly become an economic colony of the Chu people... This is true in countless countries in the world, especially in Europe recently. It happens one after another in the country, without exception!
This will bring about countless problems, such as the complete bankruptcy of the handicraft industry, and even the agricultural economy will have to act with the face of the Chu people. You can only grow what the Chu people tell you to grow, and you will only be given as much as you want to buy. Acquisition... This is almost like putting your neck into the noose that the Chu people have set. If one day the Chu people accidentally kick over the bench under Russia's feet, Russia will be hanged directly without even a chance to breathe. will not have.
Not to mention the military right of passage. If Russia agrees to this, the Chu people will send troops to Russia and station themselves next to the Russian palace to act as a 'personal bodyguard' for the Russian king... The Kingdom of Russia has a slight If you resist, the shells will hit the Russian palace directly!
Don't ask why Russia knows, because the Chu people do this in colonies all over the world... They will station a large force in the capital of the puppet regime, and choose suitable places to build forts, directly facing the puppet regime. Palaces and other political power centers!
London, Paris, Madrid, Berlin and other regions in Europe all have Chu troops stationed there. The number may not be large, but it is enough to blast the palaces and other political centers of these puppet regimes to pieces immediately.
The people of Chu did not even conceal their intention to do this... but openly informed the kings of these puppet regimes to be honest, otherwise they will blow you up directly into the sky, and you will not be able to move away. You can't even move the capital, just be your king under my cannon!
As a result, the kings of puppet states under the rule of the Chu Empire in many places such as Europe and India actually lived under the gunfire of the Chu army...
Of course, the Chu army will not bombard the palaces of these puppet countries for nothing. As long as you cooperate honestly with the Chu people to engage in economic plunder, the Chu people will not only not attack you, but will even let you Enjoy the glory and wealth you deserve. When rebels appear and you cannot defeat them, the Chu army will sometimes take the initiative to help you suppress the resisters.
Even the Chu people will generally support their puppet regimes to establish new and stronger military forces. A typical example is Spain.
After the Spanish army was beaten to pieces by the Chu army, the Chu Empire helped them rebuild the army. Not only did they allow them to replace a large number of soldiers and prisoners of war with ordinary labor as the backbone of the reconstructed army, they also sold a large number of weapons at low prices. Equipment was given to them, and they were allowed to purchase a series of export equipment from the Da Chu Empire.
We have all kinds of flintlock guns, matchlock guns, front-loaded artillery, plate armor, swords and spears, etc. We also support custom-made military uniforms, tents, etc.
In addition to these, spring-mounted two-wheel and four-wheel baggage carriages, various war horses, and draft horses are also sold.
Basically, except for breech-loaded rifled guns, the Dachu Empire has everything else available for purchase, and there are customization services.
For example, in terms of cold weapons, there are all kinds of cold weapons. If not, if you provide a sample, we will customize and produce a batch for you in minutes. In terms of materials and quality, as long as you are willing to pay, all steel weapons will be provided. You can get it...even alloy steel is not impossible.
For the high-end customers of the nobles, the Dachu Empire provides sabers and other cold weapons made of high-end alloy steel. Although the price is very expensive, the quality is good. In ancient times, these alloy steel cold weapons were considered precious swords. category.
Although the above-mentioned export weapons, no matter whether they are good or bad, all cost money, and they are not cheap, but as long as you are willing to spend money, the Da Chu Empire can even help you step by step, from equipment to training, according to the rules of its own servants. Standard will create the top line army for you!
Among them are the Chu army’s current weapons, the 23-year-old flash cap percussion gun...
This is mainly because the Chu Empire has begun to mass-produce and equip the 25-year-old 11mm box-type repeating rifles. The flash cap percussion gun is a product that is three generations behind the Chu army. No matter how popular it is, After the cap-loading rifle, came the front-loading rifled rifle, then the breech-loading rifled single-shot rifle, and now the breech-loading rifled repeating rifle.
With the gradual replacement of the Chu army's breech-loaded rifled weapons, the flash cap percussion gun has been fully introduced to the first and second-line regular army units. Currently, only the 23-year-old percussion cap percussion gun is used by the servant armies and militia forces.
However, militia forces in the Americas have begun to gradually replace the breech-loaded rifled single-shot rifles retired by the regular army, but the number of these rifles is not large. After all, there were not many single-shot rifles in early service.
As the production capacity of Type 25 repeating rifles continues to increase, after the main force of the regular army is gradually replaced, single-shot rifles will be replaced and then equipped with militia and servant armies...
There are also a batch of front-loading rifled rifles equipped in the early stage, which are intended to be replaced and distributed to local militia forces for use. They will be retired directly after the barrels and ammunition in stock are used up... Due to the requirements of logistics unification, this A batch of old muzzle-loading rifled rifles with a combined total of less than 100,000 models. The military does not plan to send them overseas. It will let the militia use them in the country. In a few years, they will be completely decommissioned and destroyed.
Too little old equipment has to be maintained and used, and the maintenance cost is more expensive than directly replacing it with new ones...
In the future, there will be two main types of firearms in the Dachu Empire. One is the repeating rifle used by the main regular army, and the other is the single-shot rifle used by the militia and servant army.
And they are all breech-loading rifles using 11mm copper-cased metal bullets!
Other muzzle-loading rifled rifles and muzzle-loading percussion guns will be completely retired from the military, not even used by the servant army...
Among them, the front-loading rifled rifle is too powerful. If sold to the indigenous people, it will easily pose a certain threat to the Chu army itself, so there is no plan to export it.
But the front-loaded flash cap firing gun is different. This thing still belongs to the sequence of the front-loading smoothbore gun. Although it uses a flash cap, the improvement is the success of firing, not the range and accuracy.
In essence, this thing is the same thing as a flintlock gun, and the usage scenarios and tactics are the same.
At the same time, there is no need to worry about them using the 23-year-old flash cap percussion gun converted into a rifled rifle, because the barrel of this thing cannot be rifled!
The Type 23 flash cap percussion gun is an improvement from the Type 21 rifle, and the Type 21 percussion cap percussion gun is simply modified from the Type 13/Four Year flintlock rifle. Come on... In other words, the barrel of the 23-year-old flash cap percussion gun is actually the 13-year-old/4-year-old barrel. There is not much difference in the technical scheme...
This kind of barrel is extremely cheap for the Chu State. Back then, the army purchased a 23-year-old flintlock rifle, which cost only two or three Chu Yuan, and directly purchased a 14-year-old flintlock gun. The cost required is basically the same.
This is why the Great Chu Empire in the 1920s obviously had better steel technology and better barrel technology, but it was not used on the 23-year-old flash cap firing rifle, because this rifle The Army's positioning is transitional firearms, and it requires them to be as cheap as possible... The barrel can only use old technology. No new technology is allowed. The main focus is a cheap one. However, the development and production of muzzle-loading rifle rifles have been delayed. Being able to solve the problem forced the Army to continue purchasing for twenty-three years. The planned equipment plan of 200,000 units increased step by step, and in the end the total production was headed for 2 million units.
When the technical problems of the front-loading rifled rifle were solved and the equipment could be mass-produced, the military discovered that the breech-loading rifled gun could also be equipped in batches... There was almost no big difference in the technical difficulty between the two. When the technology advanced enough to enable mass production When it comes to front-loading rifled guns, breech-loading rifled guns can also be mass-produced, and the cost is about the same...
As a result, the front-loaded rifled gun died in such an embarrassing way. Only the Guards once equipped it on a large scale, but it only equipped it for a few years and then completely dismantled it.
Beginning in the 32nd year of Chengshun, the Chu army entered the era of breech-loading rifles!
And back to the flash cap percussion gun, because this thing is a transitional firearm, the performance index requirements are very low, and the quality of the barrel is also poor. This has also led to the 21-year-old and 23-year-old perch cap percussion guns. The barrel cannot be rifled at all.
It basically does not have the ability to be converted into a rifled rifle.
In this case, if the 21-year-old and 23-year-old flash cap percussion guns are sold, there is no need to worry about the indigenous people pulling out the rifling by hand and transforming them into front-loading rifled guns.
Of course, if you have to do this, you can actually do it, but the barrel will not be able to fire many bullets, and the rifling will be severely worn, and it may even explode directly.
However, rifling is also a technical job that requires very high materials and equipment. Currently, no indigenous country can do this... It took the Chu Empire many years of technical research to initially solve the problem of rifled barrels. , and the initial cost was extremely high. It was not until 32 years after Chengshun that technological progress reduced the cost and equipped the army on a large scale.
If these natives want to make a rifled rifle, they have to study the materials and mechanical equipment from beginning to end, and the Dachu Empire obviously cannot give them this opportunity!
Combining many factors, it is not the limited flash cap percussion guns currently exported by the Da Chu Empire. Of course, there are definitely no new products. They are all 21-type flash cap percussion guns that have been sealed by the military for more than ten years.
These things are all modified from the 14-year-old rifles. To be honest, it is conservatively estimated that they were produced twenty-five years ago!
An old gun full of history!
However, even for this kind of 21-year-old historical gun, it is not possible for the natives outside to buy it if they want.
When the Kingdom of Spain rebuilt its army, it only received a purchase quota of 5,000 guns, which was very expensive... The gun plus a hundred rounds of flash caps were worth thirty-six dollars without discount. It is twice as expensive as the Chu people purchasing a brand new Type 25 rifle, which is a sky-high price these days!
What, you said this thing looks no different from those flintlock guns, why is it so expensive...don't buy it if it's too expensive.
When people in the Chu country do arms business, they always pay attention to your own will and never force customers to place orders.
But if you don’t want it, I will sell it to the customers in Portugal and France next door. They are also rebuilding the army and plan to purchase flash cap percussion guns.
Our company does not have many flintlock guns, and there is an annual sales limit... Are you sure you don't want it?
Don’t want it yet?
Well, we Chu people have always been good people. Let me tell you something secretly. Our Chu Empire has always fully respected the sovereignty of all countries and never interfered in the wars between countries. However, Portugal next door seems to be planning to launch a war against you. , I think you need five thousand powerful flash cap guns to protect your country!
What, not yet?
you sure?
The negotiator of the European Arms Trading Company stood up, then took out the Sky revolver from his waist, waving it randomly in the air and shooting while shouting something incomprehensible about trade freedom and the like!
Anyway, in the end, Spain bought 5,000 old 21-year-old flash cap percussion guns to equip their newly rebuilt Guards Corps.
You see, the Chu people even sell the percussion rifles that are still used on a large scale by their own servants to help the puppet countries of various countries rebuild their armies. From this point of view, the Chu people are quite good to these puppet countries. .
Basically, as long as you cooperate with the Chu people honestly, provide the Chu people with agricultural, livestock and mineral products, and at the same time serve as a dumping ground for the Chu people's industrial products, the Chu people will basically not care too much about other aspects, and they will not care about you as a native on weekdays. Whatever happens within the puppet states, or even wars between the puppet states, as long as the Chu state's own interests are ensured, they generally don't care.
From these perspectives, the Chu people are actually very good to these puppet countries and colonies... and the economy in some puppet countries and colonies is even better than before.
However, even so, the Russians are still unwilling...
They have their own bottom line, and they also have a certain confidence in Russia's winter and huge territory. They feel that even if they cannot defeat the Chu people, relying on the winter and the huge territory, there should be hope for delaying some time.
As long as it is delayed until the people of Chu feel that the cost of armed conquest of Russia is too high and uneconomical, Russia will proactively make concessions, cede territory and other benefits, and even give up part of the market, such as tariffs on several specific commodities. Fix it within a certain range and strive for an ending that maintains the bottom line
Keeping the bottom line as much as possible is Russia's goal... As for defeating the Chu people, they have never thought about it that way!
Even if the war does not go well, they will surrender decisively like the previous countries... to avoid the large-scale massacre of the king and nobles.
In short, the Russians still want to give it a try, otherwise they will simply give up being puppets, and they are not willing to do so!
It plans to launch a large-scale military operation against Russia. It will not only launch an attack across the Ural Mountains towards the Eastern European plains, but will also mobilize troops from Europe to land on the Baltic Sea and then fight directly towards Moscow.
Let's launch a two-front attack to completely defeat Russia and build a super-large granary in Europe!
Many people in the country want to occupy the Eastern European plains and open up a super large granary!
