I want to be emperor

A war between England and Wales directly detonated the outlet of the percussion gun!
In fact, in this war, the advantages of the flash cap percussion gun were too great, although the range, power and accuracy were not much different from the flintlock guns previously exported by Chu State.

However, the all-weather firing rate is as high as 90.00%, and it can be used in windy and rainy weather. This will directly change many tactical applications in the line era.

The war between Wales and England is evidence of this. In the local environment of frequent rains, armies equipped with ordinary flintlock muskets could only wait for good weather to fight.

But the troops equipped with percussion rifles were able to still fight in light rain.

This resulted in troops equipped with percussion guns having more tactical options, thereby changing the outcome of the war.

After the first battle broke out between the two countries, within a few days, the two countries successively placed orders for flash cap percussion guns. They wanted them very urgently, and the prices they offered were also very good. They even said that as long as they could be used normally, even if they were Anything that hasn't been renovated is fine.

After all, there is a war going on, and there is an urgent need for a large number of percussion rifles to equip the troops.

In this regard, the Dachu Empire did not disappoint these two countries. Although the inventory of flash cap percussion guns in the British area was running out, there was quite a lot of inventory in the entire Europe and North Africa.

After all, the Chu Army previously stationed nearly 20 foreign legions in Europe. These foreign legions have also been equipped with Type [-] and Type [-] rifles in the past year or two, thus replacing a large number of rifles. Cap percussion gun stock.

At the same time, after finalizing the export of flash cap percussion guns, the Chu Army also recalled flash cap percussion guns in the hands of foreign legions and militiamen around the world. A considerable number of these perch cap percussion guns were also transported to Europe for sale.

Therefore, the empire currently has sufficient stock of percussion cap guns in Europe and North Africa, but most of them have not had time to be refurbished... However, the refurbishing process is also very simple, and it is nothing more than painting the handguard. , parts are disassembled and cleaned, broken parts are replaced, and maintenance oil is applied. There is no technical content and no professional mechanical equipment is required.

You can find a group of local workers in Europe to quickly refurbish it, then pack it and ship it directly, which is very fast.

Therefore, the empire first distributed the more than 2000 23-year-old flash cap percussion guns that were still in stock in England and had not yet had time to be refurbished to two companies, and then urgently transported them from other parts of Europe.

In less than a month, 23 [-]-year-old percussion rifles were sent to each of the two families.

Some of them have been renovated, and some are in good condition and have not been renovated.

Of course, they are all second-hand goods that have been used for more than ten years. They are basically replaced from the Foreign Legion stationed in Europe... And these 23-year-old flash cap percussion guns were actually used by the regular army earlier.

As for new guns...sorry, there are none for now!

The Da Chu Empire had completely stopped production of flash cap percussion guns 32 years after Chengshun, because at that time the regular army had begun to equip and use Type [-] rifles and Type [-] rifles, and flash cap percussion guns were not allowed to be exported at that time. So the production line was stopped directly.

The production line needs to be restarted after more than ten years. Even if some existing flintlock production lines are modified, it will take some time to adjust the production line. At the same time, plus the time for information transmission and transportation time, these new flash caps will be fired. The gun will not reach Europe for a while.

More importantly, in order to sell the millions of second-hand flash cap guns in stock first, the empire's top officials have already issued instructions. Although brand new flash cap guns can be purchased in the short term, the price cannot be low... ...If the old gun sells for fifty or six Chu yuan, then the new gun will cost more than ten Chu yuan.

To ensure the price difference...

If the prices are about the same, and the natives are not stupid, why don't you use a new gun instead of a tattered second-hand gun that has been used for more than ten or even twenty years?

Considering the price factor, it is impossible for brand-new flash cap percussion guns to be shipped in large quantities in a short time, or even for several years.

At this stage, the flash cap percussion guns that can be purchased in indigenous countries are only second-hand goods. The only difference lies in whether the quality of these second-hand goods is better or worse, and whether they are refurbished or not.

After spending money, the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Wales quickly obtained [-] percussion guns each. These percussion guns were quickly equipped with their regular armies and put into combat.

Subsequently, the other three countries in the British region also successively obtained [-] percussion rifles each.

From this quantity, we can see how powerful the empire's weapons supply capabilities are... In just one month, at least [-] percussion rifles have been supplied to the British region.

And this is only a small part of the inventory consumed.

At the same time, the European Arms Trading Company, a subsidiary of the Dachu Empire Arms Trading Company, has many salesmen and arms agents who are running around Europe and vassal countries to discuss the export of flash cap firing guns.

In this process, in fact, regardless of whether the indigenous rulers of these vassal countries are willing to purchase percussion guns, they will purchase them in the end.

This is not to say that the Chu people forced them to buy. On the contrary, many times the Chu people sold them in limited supply. After all, although there are currently hundreds of thousands of flash cap percussion guns in stock in Europe, It is not enough for the entire European region.

In order to maintain a certain regional balance of military power, the empire often adopts a non-helping attitude when selling percussion guns. Two hostile families can often obtain the same number of percussion guns.

If the Chu people don't force them to buy, why are these natives still actively purchasing?
This is because... you are not in a hurry when your enemy purchases an advanced flash cap firing gun? not afraid?
You must know that the Chu Empire did not serve as a police force in Europe. Most of the time, it ignored the conflicts between indigenous countries. In recent years, several small indigenous countries in Central Europe have been destroyed. The Chu Kingdom The person didn't even look at it, he just made sure that his own interests were not lost and ignored him.

So don’t think that after the Chu people came, there would be no wars in Europe. In fact, there were still the conflicts and wars that should have been there... Even the arrival of the Chu people and the economic policies they adopted led to the emergence of more indigenous countries. Unrest leads to more wars.

In addition, the arms dealers of the Dachu Empire, well, mainly refer to some arms agents under the regional arms trading companies under the Dachu Empire Arms Trading Company... These agents are in order to sell more weapons and obtain higher profits. , often causing trouble and provoking wars everywhere!
The arms trade in the overseas areas of the Dachu Empire basically coexisted with official channels and agent channels. The official mainly controlled the export of large quantities of arms and arms export control. At the same time, the private arms market in the directly-governed territories and administrative territories also belonged to each country. The arms trading company directly builds and operates it.

Therefore, the main trading objects of arms trading companies are, on the one hand, police agencies in directly governed and administrative territories, and private individual users.

On the other hand, there are indigenous-controlled areas, such as the indigenous national regimes and separatist regimes in vassal and non-vassal countries. These large customers are often provided with a complete set of military supplies solutions, and export orders are often in the tens of thousands. A rifle with hundreds of thousands or even millions of bullets, plus dozens of artillery pieces and thousands of rounds of artillery shells.

They also provide military uniforms, military shoes, bedding, tents, raincoats, military cans, medicines, etc... They basically sell everything that can be used in war, and they sell it in large quantities.

In other words, these arms trading companies are only responsible for the police market, private market and indigenous mass market within their jurisdiction.

But in addition to these indigenous national teams and large-scale separatist or opposition armed forces, there are actually many messy armed forces among the indigenous people, such as noble private armed forces, small-scale rebel forces, etc.

The business of these people is usually handed over to arms agents, and arms trading companies act as channel wholesalers.

These arms agents are not kind-hearted characters. In order to make a profit, they will do anything... Moreover, the prices of weapons are often not transparent, and they are desperate... For example, in many areas, a matchlock gun sells for more than ten yuan. Everything about Yuan was basically done by these arms agents.

You know, the price of a brand-new matchlock gun sold by an arms trading company on a large scale is only three or four cents, which is very cheap... But as soon as those arms dealers change hands, the price can basically double or even several times.

However, it is risky for people to open up their own markets and find customers, so they deserve to make the money.

Nowadays, a large number of arms agents are also active in Europe... They go to those small indigenous forces, mainly small nobles and the like.

After all, the particularity of the European region is that many local small nobles often have private military bases. Although the scale is small, there may only be dozens or hundreds of people, but they also need weapons and equipment.

With the activities of the official sales staff of the European Arms Trading Company and arms agents... the export of flash cap percussion guns was instantly triggered.

In July of Chengshun 46, the European Arms Trading Company discovered that... all the more than 30 flash cap percussion guns in its inventory had been sold out, and there were still orders for more than 50 flash cap percussion guns. .

To this end, European arms companies quickly transferred goods from other regions. At the same time, the military also provided great cooperation. On the one hand, it took out a large number of sealed and spare flash cap percussion guns. Weapons were upgraded in the militia area, and these militiamen were equipped with Type [-] rifles in advance, and then the flash cap percussion guns were recovered and delivered to arms trading companies for sale as agents.

As for the flash cap firing guns of the Foreign Legion, they have been recovered one after another last year... After all, although the Foreign Legion is a cannon fodder unit, it is still a combat unit. Because of the needs of combat, it is equipped with Type [-] or Type [-] models earlier. Type [-] rifle.

The remaining flash cap percussion guns that have not been recovered are mainly in militia units. The number of these guns is very large, possibly reaching 400 to [-] million.

There is no way. The Dachu Empire previously produced too many 23-year flash cap percussion guns, and also modified some 21-year percussion cap percussion guns. The total number of these 21-year-style/23-year percussion cap percussion guns is more than 500. There are thousands of them.

The militia forces were gradually equipped with flash cap percussion guns in the late 20s, and the equipment took longer than the regular army.

Therefore, the militia forces have a large inventory of flash cap percussion guns.

The sales of second-hand flash cap percussion guns have also accelerated the military's replacement of new small-caliber repeating rifles, namely Type 24 rifles and Type 26 rifles.

The accelerated replacement of small-caliber repeating rifles is also inseparable from the construction of production lines and production increases of the five major weapons companies.

At present, the main rifle factories in the empire are mainly five core rifle production factories: Tianjin Arsenal, Hantian Arsenal, Songjiang Qiming Arsenal, Guangzhou Arsenal, and Chang'an Firearms Factory. They all have complete capabilities to mass-produce new standard rifles. The five arsenals belong to the five major arms companies, one for each company.

This is to ensure that in various special circumstances such as war, natural disasters, and civil wars, if one or several weapons companies have problems, there will still be other weapons companies' arsenals that can undertake the large-scale mass production of standard rifles.

Of course... these are all extreme situations.

Having production capabilities does not mean that they will mass-produce today's standard rifles.

Because there are five arms companies, but there are only two standard rifles now...

The Type 24 rifle is from Huguang Arms Company. Because the total order volume for this rifle is not too large, in order to ensure profits and to ensure the operating rate of its Hantian Arsenal, this rifle is not manufactured by other weapons companies' arsenals. , all produced by Hantian Arsenal.

The Type 26 rifle is a product of Hebei Arms Company. The demand for this thing is relatively large, at least more than 100 million units, which must at least meet the needs of first-class A and B troops.

And the specific amount depends on the research and development of the empire's new propellant. If the development of smokeless gunpowder is slow and it will take more than ten years to come out...then the military cannot stop and wait. The equipment plan for small-caliber repeating rifles will continue to be promoted. Then the Type 26 rifle, which is used as a transitional small-caliber black powder bullet repeating rifle, may eventually have a production capacity of millions of units and be fully equipped with the regular army.

With such a huge production capacity, it is naturally impossible for the Tianjin Ordnance Factory to do it alone, so there will be OEMs... For example, the Guangzhou Ordnance Factory of the Guangdong and Guangxi Arms Company has OEMed the ultra-short-barreled version of the Type 26 rifle, which is the cavalry version.

Songjiang Qiming Weapons Company of Jiangnan Weapons Company manufactures the short-barreled version, the naval version.

The last Chang'an Arsenal is an OEM that produces some standard versions of Type 26 rifles.

Of course, the three arsenals that OEM Type 26 rifles will not produce too many OEMs. This is mainly to maintain technical capabilities... and can expand production on a large scale at any time when necessary.

In fact, under normal circumstances, these OEM arsenals also have their own production operations, such as Songjiang Qiming Arsenal. Their Qiming shotguns do not sell very well...the production lines are operating at full capacity all year round.

As for Chang'an Arsenal, although their firearms business is no longer in business, they have recently switched to the production of machine guns. The order list for the [-] water-cooled heavy machine gun they produced has been fully booked... They are also very busy.

Even if it is the Guangzhou Arsenal, even though it does not have any major products, but... the Guangzhou and Guangxi Arms Company is not good at making rifles. They mainly make artillery and warships, and they are also the largest ammunition production base in the empire... Their cannonballs and bullets The production capacity can account for half of the total domestic ammunition.

In fact, if the military had not forced all major arms companies to retain the ability to mass-produce standard rifles, the three arsenals of Songjiang Qiming, Guangzhou, and Changan would not engage in OEM production... there is a lot of nonsense. I don’t have much money and it’s a waste of time.

Therefore, the production capacity of these two standard rifles is mainly concentrated in Tianjin Arsenal and Hantian Arsenal. Together with a small amount of production capacity of several other foundries, Chengshun is expected to be able to produce approximately 46 eight-millimeter rifles in 35 years. caliber repeating rifle.

Although at first glance, it would seem that it would take more than ten years to re-equip the entire army... but in fact, this amount is quite a lot.

You know, this is the regular production capacity of the peaceful market... The arsenal adopts a normal work schedule and normal production, but there is no such thing as overtime... After all, the total number of new weapons and equipment is limited, and it is impossible to say that it will explode now. Production capacity, all standard rifles were produced in just two or three years, and then...then the arsenal would close down due to lack of orders.

In addition to meeting the needs of the military, military procurement in peacetime also plays a major role in maintaining the production lines and technical personnel of the arsenal.

This is not the same thing as the explosion of production capacity during war... If it were during war, the five major weapons companies in the Chu Empire would work overtime, and it is estimated that they would be able to achieve an annual production capacity of at least 300 million pieces.

If it is more urgent, it is not impossible to expand production regardless of risk, with an annual output of 500 million.

The construction of the defense industry of the Great Chu Empire was based on a construction model that was lenient in anticipation of the enemy. During peacetime, it was just a matter of fishing and building some equipment and technical personnel reserves... But even so, the production capacity was very large.

And this production capacity cannot be reduced casually... This means that regardless of whether the military uses them or not, it actually has to purchase 30 to [-] rifles every year.

But don’t worry that the military can’t digest it... As a global empire, with a population of more than 6 million, and controlling the world, directly or indirectly ruling a country with a population of [-] to [-] billion indigenous people, the number of its army and militia But quite a few.

More than 30 new guns a year are actually barely enough. It is a move by the military to save costs... With this kind of production capacity, it will take ten years to meet the normal needs of the regular army... This will take a lot of time. If there is no loss in combat, no training, and if there is some loss, then the time will be longer.

But... the military actually has no intention of continuing to produce small-caliber black powder bullets for more than ten years... What people are thinking about are smokeless powder bullets and matching new guns.

Whether it is the Type 24 rifle or the Type 26 rifle, in the eyes of the military, they are actually transitional emergency products, just like the previous Type 80 rifle whose production was stopped within a few years and the total output was only more than 25 pieces... …are all transitional products.

Because according to the initial plan of the Army... after the Type [-] rifle, the small-caliber smokeless powder repeating rifle should be put into service... However, the technology development progress is too slow, and it has not been developed for more than ten years. At the same time, the military continues to develop, and it is impossible for the military to stubbornly use Type [-] rifles regardless of technological development.

That's why the Type 25 rifle and the Type 26 rifle were used midway through service...these two are also very closely related to the Type [-] rifle.

Because the Type 25 rifle is actually a continuous-fire version of the Type [-] rifle...except for adding a magazine, there is no other difference.

The Type 26 rifle is a reduced-caliber version of the Type 25 rifle. Except for the smaller caliber, there is no other difference.

There is a big gap between this and the brand-new standard rifle that the Army wants!

So despite the fact that the Army is currently purchasing and using Type 26 rifles on a large scale, people are actually a little disdainful of this thing... It's just that a better one won't be available for a while, so I'm reluctant to use it first.

It's not like the Navy who treats the Type 24 rifle as their own son and likes it very much.

But this is also the consistent tradition of the Army... It always likes some tall things, and then has to use a lot of so-called transitional weapons. It is said that a certain Navy boss said: Those people in the Army are just cheap, talking shit while talking Take a big bite while stinking!

A certain former Army Chief of Staff, former Minister of Staff, and Duke of the Empire came to the door with a saber and asked for a duel... This immediately caused a sensation in the circle of high-level friends of the Empire!

But don't think that the Navy was wrong, the Army really did this.

For example, the early 23-year-old flash cap percussion gun was a transitional product at first, because at that time, the military had actually begun to develop rifled rifles. When discussing new weapons, it was like opening your mouth to rifle and shutting up. After-loading...

As for the flash cap percussion gun... those are things that are not on the market. Just modify a batch of 13-year-old flintlock guns for use.

However, the development progress of rifled rifles is extremely slow... let alone breech-loading rifled guns, even front-loading rifled guns have been delayed.

When the front-loading rifled gun was slightly developed, but it was still unable to be equipped on a large scale, the military found that the technical reserves for the front-loading rifled gun could be used to directly develop the breech-loading rifled gun, so it decided to wait until the breech-loading rifle was ready. The rifled rifle was ready in one step.

This is the Type 20 rifle project that began in the mid-[-]s.

However, whether it is front-mounted or rear-mounted, rifled guns have been difficult to produce. At the same time, all the 13-year-old flintlock guns that can be modified have been modified.

At the same time, the army urgently needed a large number of new weapons, so the military had to temporarily get a 23-year-old percussion capper gun... This 23-year-old percussion capper gun is actually a modified version of the 13-year-old flintlock gun. The new production version of the 21-year-old flash cap percussion gun...the two are almost identical, and the technology used is very backward.

The result... This typical transitional emergency product first produced more than 100 million units to equip the regular army. Later, the Chu army launched a large-scale foreign legion. At the same time, in order to arm the militia, another 200 million units were successively produced to equip the foreign legion and militia. .

最终导致23年式火帽击发枪这破玩意，最终产能超过400万……再加上改装来的21年式火帽击发枪的话，21年式/23年式火帽击发枪的总数量超过500万。

But even so, the army's top brass never liked this weapon... This thing is actually really backward.

Strictly speaking, except for the copper flash cap and barrel bluing technology, other technologies, especially barrel casting and processing technology, are the technological products of the imperial decade. At that time, the Chu people were still producing water conservancy equipment. Where are the firearms?

Therefore, as soon as the Type [-] rifle came out, the Army did not hesitate to kick this flash cap percussion gun out of the regular army and became a weapon used by militias and foreign legions.

Among the many light weapons equipped by the Army, there are only three types, the 13-year-old flintlock and the [-]-year-old rifle.

The others are all godsons who are halfway to the top, the kind that the Army uses but despises...

Including the most advanced Type 26 rifle!
However, this does not prevent the Type 26 rifle from being fully equipped with front-line combat troops, and it has begun to participate in overseas front-line battles and achieved good results!
This rifle also allowed many indigenous countries to once again see the invincibility of the Chu Empire!

The Chu soldiers holding this rifle are almost ten times as powerful as the indigenous line soldiers equipped with front-loading muskets. What is more deadly is not even the rate of fire, but the effective range... The limited range of more than 700 meters is better than those of the indigenous soldiers. Most field smoothbore guns have a long effective range.

This is enough to make those natives desperate!