There is no doubt that the Shaanxi Type 1 machine gun quickly attracted the attention of the four major services after the formal live ammunition test. Military representatives of each service even negotiated orders with Chang'an Arsenal on the spot.
Of course, although military representatives have certain authority to conduct preliminary negotiations, formal procurement must still be reported to the ordnance procurement departments of each service.
The first to take action was the Guards. After the Ordnance Department of the Guards learned the relevant information, it immediately dispatched a delegation of more than ten people to Chang'an by train and once again watched the test of the Shaanxi-1 machine gun.
After watching the test, the Guards' ordnance procurement delegation also put forward three requirements.
The first is that in addition to the existing tripod version, the Guards hopes that the Chang'an Arsenal will develop a carrier-based version that can be deployed on ships, and requires improved cooling water supply methods... There is no shortage of cooling water on battleships, even if there is no Fresh water can also be used temporarily with sea water.
Secondly, the Guards hope to have a machine gun base with wheels or even a shield, which can allow horses to drag the machine gun directly, while also increasing the protection of the shooter.
After all, the main potential combat targets of the Guards have never been overseas indigenous people, but various domestic rebels that may appear. When fighting rebels, the rebels will also have rifled rifles and even machine guns.
Therefore, it is still necessary to add baffles to resist bullets.
These two requirements of the Guards are not actually requirements, because in addition to tripods, the Chang'an Arsenal also has wheel bases and ship-based base models.
And there is no technical difficulty in this. You can just get a gun rack and mount it.
Chang'an Arsenal even considered the issue of universality and unified the combination of these different types of gun frames and gun bodies. In this way, different types of machine guns can use different gun frames in different situations. .
Finally, the Guards put forward the most important improvement request, that is, the Guards requested an 8mm caliber version...not an 11mm caliber version.
Because this year, the Type 24 8mm small-caliber repeating rifle developed and produced by Huguang Arms Company officially entered the navy and began small-scale service. The Dachu Empire has entered the era of small-caliber firearms.
In a multi-service Military Academy meeting, it was clearly required that the caliber of the next-generation standard rifle be eight millimeters. The 8-mm black powder bullet developed by Huguang Arms Company will be temporarily used. This small-caliber black powder bullet not only changes the propellant itself. structure, and adopts a more complex loading process to pack more propellant into small-caliber bullets.
(Reference historical facts: Mannlicher 1888 uses 8mm black powder bullets; Lee-Enfield's early model 'Lee-Metford Magazine Rifle' uses 7.7mm black powder bullets)
Of course, this eight-millimeter black powder bullet is just a helpless move before the current breakthrough in gunpowder technology. Many research structures in the empire, such as Zhenjiang Chemical Gunpowder Factory, have been researching new gunpowders and have also produced many new explosives. .
But there is still a gap between large-scale practical use, well, mainly how to put it into practical use safely... Many so-called new explosives are extremely unstable, and accidental explosions occur one after another during research. If they are put into actual use, they are not very reliable. of.
After using small-caliber bullets, there are two most obvious changes. One is that it can reduce the volume of the magazine and effectively reduce the length of the magazine. For example, the Type 25 rifle uses a single-row leaky magazine. There is a big protrusion at the bottom. The Army has always had a problem with this and has always wanted to smooth out the protruding magazine.
A bunch of obsessive-compulsives!
Secondly, after the bullet caliber is smaller, the weight of the bullet is reduced, and soldiers can carry more bullets on the battlefield without adding extra weight.
There is another unique advantage that belongs to the Huguang Type 24 rifle alone, that is, their Type 24 rifle uses a cross-row double-row magazine. When using eight-millimeter bullets, the initial model has a loading capacity of eight rounds. , three more than the five rounds of the Type 25 rifle.
Moreover, the Huguang Arms Company is still working on a ten-round version... The Hebei Arms Company is jealous of this ammunition capacity.
But there is nothing they can do, because their cross-row double-row magazine is the exclusive patent of Huguang Arms Company, and it is not authorized to outsiders. The other four arms companies want to use it, and they will wait for the patent for fifteen years. It’s due.
The combination of small-caliber black powder bullets with double rows of ammunition, coupled with the rear-end locking inherited from the Huguang Arms Company, makes this thing have a super fast rate of fire, a fast reloading speed, and a very fierce firepower...
During the test, it only took five seconds for a skilled shooter to fire eight bullets in one breath without considering shooting accuracy... almost comparable to later semi-automatic rifles.
There are also shortcomings, that is, the rate of fire is too fast, the bullets are consumed too quickly, and the logistics pressure will be great.
At the same time, if the rate of fire is too fast, the shooter will not have time to aim... In addition, the rear end locking is slightly less accurate, so the accuracy is worse than the Type 25 rifle.
The Huguang Type 24 rifle completed research and development and began small-scale trial production to enter naval service, forcing Hebei Arms Company to begin urgent technical research and prepare to launch a small-caliber version of the Type 25 rifle.
Because it is only a small-caliber modification and the bullets are readily available, the technical difficulty of the overall research and development will not be very high, and it is expected to be completed in the spring of next year.
Although the Guards has just switched to Type 25 rifles, it has been decided internally to start switching to small-caliber rifles next year. Now it is still wandering between the small-caliber versions of Type 24 rifles and Type 25 rifles. indefinite.
Many people in the Guards prefer the small-caliber improved version of Hebei Arms Company's Type 25 rifle. After all, the Guards are loyal users of Hebei Arms Company.
Starting from the Type 16 front-loading rifled rifle, the Guards have always used rifles from Hebei Arms Company as their standard rifles.
It has been equipped with Type 16 front-loading rifled rifles, and has also tried to equip a small amount of Type 17 breech-loading paper case rifled rifles. Large-scale equipment uses Type 18 breech-loading rifled single-shot rifles. In the past two years, it has begun to equip Type 25 rifles. type rifle.
The Guards is quite satisfied with the stability and reliability of the front-end locking and rotating rear cocking structures that started with the Type 18 rifle, and intends to continue this technical route... Unfortunately, the Hebei Arms Company has taken a nap and has not yet done so. Small caliber rifle.
Hebei Arms Company has just produced the Type 25 rifle, which has just brought the production capacity of the Type 25 rifle to its peak level, with a total production of only more than 200,000 units.
In other words, in fact, so far, there are not many troops equipped with Type 25 repeating rifles, mainly the Guards, a very small number of Marine Corps and some first-class combat readiness units of the army... many of the army's first-class combat readiness units The troops are still using Type 18 single-shot rifles.
However, in just a few years, Huguang Arms Company first solved various technical problems of the Type 24 rifle, and then developed an eight-millimeter black powder bullet, and finally created such a monster as the Type 24 rifle... Although its 8 mm black powder bullet uses black powder propellant, it is very abnormal. The muzzle velocity of this 8 mm black powder bullet designed for the Type 24 rifle can reach 550 meters per second.
The first generation of smokeless gunpowder bullets in the original space and time had a muzzle velocity of only over 600 meters per second.
The old Type 25 rifle fires old 11mm black powder bullets with a muzzle velocity of only 440 meters per second.
There is a big difference in muzzle velocity between the 24 rifle and the 25 rifle!
Such a huge advantage directly pushed the entire empire's firearms forward to the eight-millimeter small-caliber era.
This makes Hebei Arms Company very helpless... In fact, Hebei Arms Company is also working on the next generation of new small-caliber rifles, and it is a next-generation rifle in the full sense.
Various technical standards are aimed at future scenarios, and the technical indicators are very high. For example, the muzzle velocity of the bullet must reach more than 600 meters, and this requires new bullet propellants to provide support. However, domestic research and development of new bullet propellants are limited. It has not been successful yet, and the new small-caliber bullets have not been seen either. Therefore, the development of the next-generation standard rifle of Hebei Arms Company is proceeding step by step.
According to their estimates, it will take at least five years to conduct various technical research and development in the early stage, and then integrate and match the next generation of new propellant small-caliber bullets to create the next generation of standard rifles for the Army and Guards.
However, Huguang Arms Company played a sneak attack and directly used black powder to create a small-caliber rifle... This forced Hebei Arms Company to deal with it.
There is no hope for the next generation of new rifles. The technical indicators of that thing are too high, and it may not be possible to produce it in five years.
Therefore, Hebei Arms Company's idea is also very simple, which is to use the Type 25 rifle as the basis, reduce the caliber, and create an 8 mm caliber version of the Type 25 rifle as a small-caliber version for emergency use. This way, the technical difficulty is less and the progress is faster. , it is expected to be put into large-scale mass production early next year to ensure that it will not fall behind Huguang Arms Company in the competition.
Under such circumstances, whether it is the Army or the Guards, they are actually waiting for the small-caliber version of the Type 25 rifle from Hebei Weapons Company. If there are no major surprises, the Army and the Guards will choose the second type. Small caliber version of the Type 15 rifle.
As for the Type 24 rifle of Huguang Weapon Company, it is not bad, but it is also quite expensive. It is much more expensive than the small-caliber version of the Type 25 rifle. It consumes more bullets and has poorer accuracy. It is more sophisticated and has higher maintenance requirements, so the Army and Guards are not inclined to type 24 rifles.
But it doesn't matter to the Navy. The Navy pays more attention to firepower density, and there is no problem of high consumption. The Marine Corps fights along the coast, and they dare to use mortars on a large scale, and rifles with fast firing rates. There is no problem at all, there is no big consumption or difficulty in supply.
The armed tax police also prefer Type 24 rifles. After all, the firepower is really fierce. As for the price and supply issues, it is not a big problem for the armed tax police.
Price is not an issue, the armed tax police are really rich and don't care about that.
As for problems such as high consumption and difficulty in maintenance, it must be said that the armed tax police have never been a field force... and they rarely engage in large-scale field operations. Daily activities are near the station, and there is no such thing as a field force. It is difficult to maintain and supply bullets.
But whether you choose the Type 24 rifle or the Type 25 small-caliber version of the rifle, one thing can be confirmed, that is, the Dachu Empire has announced that it has entered the era of eight-millimeter rifles.
The era of 11mm repeating rifles only lasted for two years before becoming abandoned... The military has even stopped purchasing 11mm bullets on a large scale and only retains small-scale purchases. , and began purchasing eight-millimeter black powder bullets.
Of course, in the next many years, the Dachu Empire will still use 11mm rifle bullets on a large scale and extensively, because there are still a large number of 18, 19, 25 type rifles and even the navy's number that use this bullet. Hundreds of hand-cranked machine guns are still in service.
But the number of 11mm bullets in stock is also very large, enough for them to last for several years.
Since the early 1930s, in the Chu Empire, except for some low-end ammunition factories dedicated to export, other ammunition factories have been fully converted to produce 11mm metal bullets. There are more than a dozen of these professional bullet factories.
The construction layout of the bullet factories in the Dachu Empire was calculated based on the fact that after the outbreak of a large-scale war, more than a dozen existing bullet factories worked overtime and produced at full capacity, with the total annual output reaching 500 million rounds of bullets.
Of course, this so-called wartime production is a state of emergency, and it is impossible to do this in normal times. But even if we only maintain low-level production in normal times, the total output is extremely terrifying.
With so many bullets, even if the Chu army has continued to launch operations around the world in the past ten years, it can actually not be used up... After all, single-shot rifles were used before, and the Type 25 repeating rifle was only used this year. In fact, it has been put into large-scale actual combat, and there are no super bullet-consuming machines like machine guns.
Therefore, the amount of bullets usually used is not high, and many 11mm bullets that are usually produced are kept in stock. At present, the inventory of 11mm metal bullets in the Dachu Empire is more than 500 million rounds... enough for the existing ones. The 11mm stock rifles and machine guns were used until they were retired.
Not to mention, considering that hundreds of thousands of Type 25 repeating rifles still have a long lifespan, plus the old Type 18 and Type 19 rifles that have been retired from the regular army in the future, they may all be decentralized. If it continues to be used in the servant army, it will last for a long time against 11mm bullets.
The military has not stopped all production of 11mm bullets, and still retains several bullet factories to continue producing this type of bullets.
From all aspects, we can know that the Da Chu Empire has begun to enter the era of small calibers, and machine guns are no exception.
Not only the Guards requested a small-caliber version, but the army, navy, and armed tax police all requested an eight-millimeter version.
Engineers at the Chang'an Arsenal had already anticipated a similar situation. They had already been developing an eight-millimeter version of the Shaanxi-type machine gun.
Now that there are formal demands from customers, Chang'an Arsenal has quickly produced an eight-millimeter-caliber version of the foreign gun for various tests through rapid design and development.
The military was also very satisfied with the test results. Soon, after formal negotiations, the Guards was the first to sign a purchase agreement with Chang'an Arsenal.
The Guards Army successively purchased 1,500 Shaanxi-type machine guns of different types in three batches, including the ordinary tripod version, the wheel frame with shield version, and the ship-based version.
All 8 mm caliber versions!
Subsequently, the army, navy and even the armed tax police officially placed purchase orders. Together with the purchase quantity of the Guards, the total reached 5,000.
It is worth noting that half of them are not actually infantry versions used by the army, but carrier-based versions used by various ships. The navy, guard, army, and armed tax police all order carrier-based versions, because they There are combat ships and auxiliary military ships that require this low-cost auxiliary fire weapon.
The machine guns in the Dachu Empire have a special positioning from the beginning and even now. Starting from the hand-cranked machine guns, this thing is not used to compare with rifles, but with artillery... The most important thing is The purpose is not to increase infantry firepower, but to reduce the consumption of artillery shells to reduce war costs. Therefore, the first place for large-scale application is not on the ground, but on warships.
This situation is actually the same as the low-cost overseas warships currently promoted by the Navy. In the absence of enemies or even potential enemies that can fight, military development has changed from considering single performance advantages to considering Cost advantage.
The general situation is a bit similar to that of the US military in the 1990s. It looked at the global invincibility, so it launched a large number of high-tech black technology projects, began to develop low-cost solutions, and began to use the sea to control the land and engage in public security warfare. .
After struggling for twenty years, we waited until a new opponent appeared before we started to develop weapons and equipment with performance as the first priority.
The current Chu army is in a similar situation, and it is even more extreme than the US military... Because according to the current situation, civil strife breaks out in the Chu Empire, otherwise the Chu army will probably have nothing to do in the next hundred years. Actual foreign opponents.
Therefore, in addition to performance, cost is also the main consideration in the research and development of a series of military equipment in the Dachu Empire today. Mature technologies should be used as much as possible to engage in large-scale mass production and general-purpose equipment.
Even things like machine guns still follow the same research and development and equipment ideas.
After the military officially purchased and equipped the Shaanxi-1 machine gun on a large scale, the Military Academy also awarded this machine gun an official military equipment number: Chengshun 42-year-old machine gun.
According to some conventions, it can also be referred to as the Type 42 machine gun, just like the Type 25 rifle, which is often called the Type 25 rifle in daily spoken language.
Chen Youzhong looked at the signed orders for these Shaanxi-type machine guns and was in a very good mood. He was already thinking about when he could take a step further and become a third-grade officer.
On the other side, first of all, after the Army got the first batch of 42 machine guns for testing, there were no problems in the early testing. However, when they were brought to the desert area in the northwest for testing, they discovered a Very embarrassing question.
That was the lack of water in the local area. When the test troops were conducting high-intensity long-distance maneuver tests, after the water they carried ran out, they couldn't find any water that could be used to cool the machine guns for a while.
The Army Ordnance Department quickly received test feedback from front-line troops... This thing uses water cooling. Although the advantages are obvious, the shortcomings are also obvious: this thing cannot be used without water.
So, the Army Ordnance Department first found the Chang'an Arsenal and asked them if they had a solution.
Chang'an Arsenal has a woolen solution. The core design of the 42 machine gun uses water cooling...
The Army is determined to not give up. The Da Chu Empire Army has garrison areas all over the world, and there are many areas in the desert that are short of water. For example, Central Asia, West Asia, North Africa and other areas are short of water. It would be troublesome to use water-cooled machine guns to fight in these places. It will be very big.
As a result, the Army once again issued a tender for a machine gun that does not use water cooling, or uses only a small amount of water cooling.
In response, the five major arms companies have started a new round of R&D bidding.
And this news is not considered a secret. After all, the contemporary Chu army rarely maintains any confidentiality system for military equipment. Even the bidding and procurement are basically open... There is no fear that the natives will know.
Knowing that there is nothing the natives can do, even after seeing such advanced weapons and equipment, the natives will become even more afraid and dare not resist.
Powerful advanced weapons, in addition to being used for fighting, also have a major role in deterring potential enemies!
Therefore, the military is looking for news about new machine guns. Although not many people know about it among the people, those who are interested can also learn the relevant information from regular channels.
Ma Qin, who returned to his hometown to start a business, was someone who focused on military equipment. He soon learned about the military's plan to solicit new machine guns.
So after working hard for three to five days, we came up with another machine gun design.
In order to circumvent the two core patents of short recoil and water cooling of the barrel that have been sold, he specially used a gas-operated bolt structure, and the barrel was directly air-cooled...
Although the gas-guided and short-barreled recoils are far different, the source of power is actually the same. They both use the gunpowder gas energy generated when the bullet is fired.
It's just that the short recoil of the barrel directly promotes the displacement of the rear barrel, while the gas-guided type opens a few small holes in the barrel to allow high-pressure gas to pass through the conduit, and then perform a series of actions.
As for Mark Qin, he had been thinking about how to use the kinetic energy produced when bullets were fired when he was in school. He also thought about various design options. He used to use a short barrel with a short recoil because he thought it was more reliable.
But since there are patent restrictions and it can no longer be used, a similar effect can be achieved by changing to an air-guided structure.
Mark Qin worked hard for a few days, and after coming up with a preliminary simple design, he rushed to apply for a patent. This time he learned a lesson... not only the core air-guiding structure, but also the heat sink air-cooling The structure has been patented, and many other designs of the entire new machine gun, including the overall design, and even the straight-plate ejection and ammunition supply mechanism that he specially created in order to avoid the bullet chain patent have also applied for new patents.
In short, he has applied for patents for all new designs in the entire machine gun.
After submitting various patent applications and confirming the patent ownership, he took the design plan to the Huguang Arms Company not far next door, preparing to promote his new machine gun design plan and plan to get another batch of pension money...
He wants to lie down completely for the rest of his life.
The people at Huguang Weapons Company were not interested in Mark Qin's arrival at first, but when they learned that the young man in front of them was the original designer of the 42 machine gun and the inventor of the two core patents of the 42 machine gun, they immediately became interested. Pay attention to it.
The 42 machine guns produced by the Shaanxi-Gansu Weapons Company made the other four weapons companies very jealous... Damn, the first batch of orders alone was thousands of them, and this machine gun is extremely expensive. The average price of the batch of 42 machine guns reached more than 600 yuan.
The first batch of 42 machine gun orders alone is worth more than 3 million Chu Yuan.
With such a huge piece of cake, the other four arms companies can only watch helplessly and cannot even drink the OEM soup... Ren Changan Arsenal said that its own factory is large enough to produce its own 42 machine guns without any problems. No need for OEM!
Four other weapons companies are also trying to develop new machine guns in an attempt to compete, but it is not easy... After all, Chang'an Arsenal's various machine gun patents are in front of them, and it is difficult to get around them.
Now that they saw the inventor of the 42 machine gun come to sell the design of the new machine gun, they immediately paid attention to it. At first they tried to recruit technical talents, but when they learned that Ma Qin had just resigned from the Shaanxi-Gan Weapons Company and had cash in his pocket Several tens of thousands. After the estimated income reaches hundreds of thousands in the next few years, I will give up this idea...
With this kind of money, why should I work or work?
If you can’t recruit talents, then just buy patents!
Soon the two parties had a brief discussion on the patent authorization of the new gas-guided separately cooled machine gun. Huguang Arms Company said that as long as the design is available, money is not an issue... As a large arms company like us, we are not short of patent fees.
A man with deep pockets desperately wants to get a new machine gun to enter the machine gun market.
A talented person who directly sells new machine gun designs in exchange for a generous pension.
Therefore, the negotiations between the two parties were very harmonious. Soon, the Hantian Arsenal, a subsidiary of Huguang Arms Company, produced the third type of machine gun in the Dachu Empire, the second type of automatic machine gun, and the first type of guided weapon based on Ma Qin's new design. Gas machine gun.
(End of chapter)
