I want to be emperor

When Luo Zhixue was about to return home from his inspection, many project teams in the subsidiaries of the five major weapons companies in the Da Chu Empire were trying their best to get their research projects to appear in front of the imperial court.

After all, opportunities like this don't come around very often.

As the emperor of the Chu Empire, Luo Zhixue was concerned about the development of the national defense industry... But Luo Zhixue was more concerned about the breakthrough and research and development of some basic technologies, as well as weapons and equipment or military products that could significantly change the world structure.

For example, the breech-loading rifled guns that came into service in the early 1930s, and wired telegraphs that seemed not to be directly related to the military.

Next come the repeating rifles and machine guns.

In addition to these things, Luo Zhixue has been paying more attention to the development of military technology in recent years, which is the development and application of smokeless gunpowder.

Let’s not talk about research and development… let’s talk about application.

As a new type of propellant, smokeless gunpowder can be used not only as a propellant for firearms and bullets, but also as a propellant for artillery.

The change in propellant...means a change in guns.

For example, in firearms, when smokeless gunpowder is used, the bullet can obtain more sufficient kinetic energy, thereby obtaining a greater muzzle velocity. A greater muzzle velocity means greater range and power... At the same time, smokeless gunpowder can be fired with less Powder, obtains muzzle velocity kinetic energy than black powder bullets, which means that the caliber of the firearm can be made smaller.

Smaller caliber firearms can increase and reduce weight, allow soldiers to carry more bullets in combat, and are more suitable as repeating rifles.

The most critical point is that smokeless gunpowder, as the name suggests, will only produce a very small amount of smoke after burning... This kind of smoke can even be ignored on the battlefield, and it can even be said that there is no smoke!

At the same time, there is no residue left, and the burning rate can also be controlled through technical means during combustion to achieve a slower and more stable burning rate.

These bring better performance to a new generation of firearms...especially useful for repeating rifles.

In fact, among the several repeating rifles currently in service in Chu State, they originally wanted to develop small-caliber repeating rifles with smokeless gunpowder. However, the development speed of smokeless gunpowder was relatively slow. At that time, the military wanted to obtain small-caliber repeating rifles. rifles, and the Huguang Arms Company developed a high-compression black powder bullet, eventually the Type 24 and Type 26 rifles were produced... Although these two rifles are equipped in large quantities, they are still the same It is a typical transitional weapon. What the military has been waiting for is a true smokeless small-caliber repeating rifle.

However, although it is a transitional rifle, the Type 24 rifle is very good, much better than the Type 26 rifle.

The grassroots soldiers of the Army and the Guards generally reported that this thing did not work...

This is also the reason why the Army and the Guards have successively purchased Type 24 rifles on a large scale. It is worth noting that many of the Army’s overseas deployments, front-line combat units and Guards with combat missions, are generally equipped with It's actually a Type 24 rifle.

As for the Type 26 rifle that the Army vigorously promoted in the early days, it basically only served in the main force or second-line troops that had no combat missions in the country... The procurement quantity decreased year by year, and in the end, the overall number of equipment in the Army was far less than that of the Type 24 rifle.

Although the Type 24 rifle uses black powder bullets, it is actually quite successful as a small-caliber repeating rifle. In particular, its detachable large-capacity magazine provides this rifle with a very considerable supply. firepower density.

This kind of detachable magazine actually has some shadows of the semi-automatic rifle or even automatic rifle magazines of later generations. During combat, it can be loaded directly by replacing it with a new magazine that has already loaded the bullet.

This means extremely fast reloading and very good sustain of fire... provided, of course, you have a loaded magazine ready. If you don't have a loaded magazine, you have to load bullets one by one temporarily, and the speed is very impressive.

The use of these two types of black powder small-caliber repeating rifles has also made the military look forward to the service of smokeless powder small-caliber repeating rifles. After the official development of smokeless powder, the tender for a new generation of standard rifles began.

But because there were too many interests involved, the trouble came to Luo Zhixue.

Luo Zhixue just followed the trend and simply came to the imperial court to check, and then let the candidate new guns be demonstrated in practice. Whoever's product is good and cheap will be used.

After other defense manufacturers learned that there would be a royal demonstration, they all wanted to include projects to gain opportunities.

As a result, news was sent to Jinshan City via telegram one after another. Luo Zhixue did not object to this, and just took this opportunity to take a look at the technological development of the defense industry in the past ten years.

With Luo Zhixue's approval, the live ammunition test of the new generation of standard rifles soon turned into a large-scale imperial display of national defense weapons and equipment...

Not only were all kinds of messy so-called new firearms produced, but also various artillery pieces and other new military equipment.

Among them are a variety of military vehicle research projects that many people are looking forward to.

After the breakthrough of gasoline engine technology, while its application continued to spread in the civilian market, the military also followed up in time and began to develop various military vehicles powered by gasoline engines.

One of the key projects is the artillery tractor. The Army wants to use lighter, more powerful, and simpler vehicles to replace the heavy, complex and troublesome steam tractors of the past.

The next key project is to develop an armored vehicle, equipped with a heavy machine gun, and steel plates will be laid on the front and sides to resist enemy light weapons attacks and be used for frontal assaults on the battlefield.

The people in the Army couldn't help but drool when they thought of such an armored vehicle equipped with a heavy machine gun, armor plates, and fast maneuverability charging on the battlefield... This thing is better than the previous heavy cavalry. much better.

These two projects are key research projects for the Army, and they are developed as future battlefield weapons... To be honest, they are more important than new rifles.

The new rifle... is good, but compared to the current Type 24 rifle, it actually cannot bring about any essential changes in tactics and strategy.

But artillery tractors and armored vehicles are different, especially armored vehicles!

With steel plate protection and the ability to maneuver quickly, those indigenous smoothbore cannons have no chance of hitting, and bullets cannot penetrate the steel plate... This means that this armored vehicle can get close to the enemy and then use the heavy machine gun it carries. Keep harvesting.

what does this mean?

This means tactical innovation!

After all, the Chu army's current operations generally take advantage of the range and accuracy of rifled weapons to defeat or even annihilate the enemy at long distances. They generally do not engage in close combat with the enemy... At close range, the indigenous flintlock guns can also The thing that poses a great threat to the Chu army... no matter how bad the flintlock gun is, it is still a gun!

But with armored vehicles, you don't have to worry about the enemy's light weapons...you don't even have to worry about the enemy's artillery. After all, armored vehicles can run, and they won't run too slowly, while the indigenous smoothbore cannons are troublesome to operate, have an impressive hit rate, and are a real threat. It will be very limited.

Even if it is the Chu army's own breech-loaded rifled cannon, it would be difficult to hit a fast-moving armored vehicle on a complex battlefield...

Luo Zhixue also attaches great importance to armored vehicles and artillery tractors... If armored vehicles can be produced now, their military role will be very great, and they can also effectively avoid being ambushed by indigenous rebels when the Chu army deploys overseas. resulting in sporadic casualties.

Even now... the Chu army's military strength has been able to defeat the indigenous people around the world thousands of times, but it still inevitably suffers a certain number of battle casualties every year... basically small-scale patrols, and even soldiers who go out individually, are betrayed by the indigenous people. Casualties caused by military ambush.

Although the Chu army often took large-scale retaliatory actions, it still could not change the fact that the soldiers who were ambushed had been injured or killed.

If there can be a large number of armored vehicles serving soldiers, then not to mention the charge role on the frontal battlefield, at least they can be used as armored carrier vehicles for soldiers to protect the safety of soldiers... Well, in fact, this is the path of infantry fighting vehicles in later generations.

In addition, artillery tractors and material transport vehicles, these two vehicles are also very important... because they can replace the horses that serve in large numbers in the Chu army...

Horses these days are more delicate than cars... Regardless of whether they are used or not, they have to spend a lot of military expenditures to maintain them. But it’s not enough if we don’t support them, otherwise the transportation needs of the troops cannot be guaranteed, and the Chu army is an army that relies heavily on logistical supplies... It’s great to use advanced guns and artillery, but even a single bullet has to be imported from East Asia. After being built locally, they were transported thousands of miles overseas. After arriving overseas, they were transported to the forward supply depot through long land or canal supply lines. After arriving at the supply depot, they were then transported to the front line by a large number of horse-drawn carriages in the military's baggage units.

In this kind of logistics supply link, logistics horses are indispensable.

If a large number of cars that do not burn fuel when not used can replace horse-drawn carriages, then this can save the Chu army a lot of military expenses... Well, this is the current view of the army... The reason for buying cars is to save money.

But outsiders don't see it that way... Cars are so expensive now. Are you telling me that transporting by car is cheaper than transporting by mules and horses?

Luo Zhixue himself was speechless when he saw it... People in the military, especially those in the army, have been talking and doing things over the years, just like the US military in the 21st century. They are changing their tricks every day to trick the Congress into appropriating funds. Among these tricks, ten out of ten are just like the US military in the 21st century. Eight are all about saving money!

But when you really believe what they say that you can save money and start working on it... you will find that a project will come up every three days and the cost will be overrun. Even if you find something wrong in the process, you can only bite the bullet and continue to work on it. After all, the front We have already spent so much money. If we give up halfway, we will lose everything. No one can bear such serious consequences.

And now the Chu army also has this tendency...

In the military, whether it is the army or the navy, everyone wants more advanced and better equipment, but even domestic primary school students know that the foreign natives are not the empire's opponents at all. From a military comparison perspective, the empire There is actually no need to improve the level of military equipment here... it doesn't matter whether it is improved or not.

In this case, many people naturally don't want to spend so much money on new equipment.

But the military definitely wants all kinds of new toys. Even if these new toys are not practical, they still want them!

Furthermore, how can the military, as an official organization, reflect its importance in peacetime? Naturally, the more people, the more money!

It's not just the military, in fact, it's the same for any official organization. In most cases, it depends on the amount of funds and the number of people in the department to reflect the importance of the department, and the power of the department head.

No one under my command has money...even if you are the Minister of Counselor.

Therefore, regardless of whether it is useful or not, the military will continue to engage in such expensive projects... Anyway, first defraud the money and spend it later.

Otherwise, if you really tell those gentlemen the real huge expenditures for armored vehicles and transport vehicles... they won't even give you the initial money!

Therefore, the military of Chu State is now thinking about how to defraud money from projects all day long...

And new gadgets like cars were chosen by them as vehicles for making money in the new era... not because of how powerful the armored vehicles are, not because they transport a lot... but because they don't burn oil if they are not in use, and then they can easily... Based on this, we made up the rhetoric that it was more economical than mules and horses, and then deceived the senior officials to allocate funds.

What they all say is that the mules and horses have to eat even if they don’t work, and they eat more... they eat even more when they are working!

But the car we build is different. It doesn't drink oil when it's not working... Even if it drinks oil, the gasoline is not worth much. There is too much oil now, it is very cheap, and there is no one for gasoline. If you want to talk a little bit with those oil companies, they will give you a lot of gasoline for free...

Well, this is not just what people from the military say to the ministers and co-organizers... people from oil companies also say this to the military!

It is said that oil is very cheap now, and gasoline is also very cheap. Rounding it off means it is free. Moreover, in the early stage, our oil company was able to send a batch of gasoline to your military for free every year...

Of course, as soon as those people from the oil company turned around, they recorded the gasoline sent out in their accounts, figuring out how much they should increase the price in the future to recoup it, or even earn more.

Nowadays, gasoline is given out because the military has very few cars. It doesn’t cost much to give the military gasoline for free... and it can also cultivate users’ habits!

But when the number of military vehicles increases and they are used on a large scale, the price of gasoline will naturally increase... After all, the oil fields will be exhausted. Oil is a limited resource. At the same time, other costs are also rising. Gasoline If the cost is high, the price will definitely increase, but not too much. Compared with the current increase, it will be three to five times.

If you say too much, it will be easy for outsiders to say it, but if you say too little, it will be unfair to them for the hard work they have put in to promote gasoline over the years...

Well, the oil companies in the Dachu Empire are the biggest promoters of gasoline engines and even other internal combustion engines... In order to sell oil, they promote cars more actively than those internal combustion engine companies.

Under such circumstances, the development of the domestic automobile industry in the Chu Empire, whether for civilian or military use, is progressing very quickly. Maybe it won't be long before there will be many cars on the streets that are familiar to future generations.

It is not like now. Although cars have appeared, they are basically used as toys for a few rich people, or simply disassembled samples of many messy research institutions and even teaching institutions.

You really can’t see many cars on the streets...

Luo Zhixue maintained an attitude of tacit approval and even support for the automobile promotion promoted by oil companies, internal combustion engine companies and other companies... The Royal Petroleum Company that was the most active in promoting internal combustion engines was a company under the Royal Assets Division!

Luo Zhixue looks forward to three to five years, not to mention that cars will enter thousands of households and become an ordinary bulk consumer product. At least it must become a daily means of transportation for the upper class and a means of transportation for industry and commerce...at least, it must not be seen occasionally on the streets.

At the same time, Luo Zhixue also hopes that the military will realize its boast, not just use funds but not work, and develop armored vehicles and transport trucks as soon as possible.

The private sector and the military worked together to develop the internal combustion engine and eventually improve the automobile industry... allowing automobiles to replace horse-drawn carriages and become the main force in land transportation. This would greatly reduce the number of mules and horses in agriculture and transportation.

The reduction in the number of mules and horses means a significant reduction in feed demand!

This is important because less feed means more farmland can be freed up to grow other crops, such as growing more grain.

Even if we continue to grow feed crops such as corn, they can also be used to feed cattle, pigs, sheep, chickens, ducks and other livestock, increasing the supply of more meat, poultry and eggs to improve people's living standards.

The development of the automobile industry will not only bring about changes in the transportation industry, but will also indirectly affect changes in agriculture.

As for why... because the Chu Empire now maintains more than 70 million horses of various breeds in its directly administered territories around the world for agricultural production, transportation, and military needs, of which military needs only account for a very small part. .

Modern industrial countries have a very high number of horses. Before World War I, Russia had more than 30 million horses, the United States had more than 20 million horses, and other major powers generally had several million horses. Even Belgium, a country with a big nose, had four. More than 100,000 horses... In peacetime, these horses are basically used for agricultural production and transportation.

Horses are a hard demand for modern industrial countries... Without so many horses, you can't support them...

The hundreds of thousands of horses in modern London are the most obvious example. Without these horses, the entire London would be paralyzed, let alone any industry.

In addition, for the United States and Russia, which are vast and sparsely populated, without horses, agriculture will be completely destroyed...

As a country that controls the world and has a huge population, the Chu Empire also needs a huge number of horses for agricultural production and transportation... This demand is almost the same as the global demand in the original time and space, because the Chu Empire has With a population of 700 million and controlling the world, there are too many places to develop... and there are more places where horses are needed. 70 million is already considered too low.

There must be a cost to raising so many horses. After all, the horses have to eat and drink.

And the cost of 70 million horses, even according to Chu people's standards, is enough to feed almost 300 million people!

Then think about it conversely, if there were cars, wouldn't there be no need to maintain so many horses in agricultural production and transportation? If there is no need for so many horses, can this food be saved and used for other purposes?

The answer is: No, you can!

After all, there are not so many horses, so the feed supply naturally does not need so much, and the feed can be used in other fields, such as feeding chickens and ducks.

Even if the horses are grazing naturally and do not need feed, the grass resources on your grassland can also be used to feed cattle and sheep after you no longer raise horses. These cattle and sheep will eventually enter people's mouths.

To put it simply, if these 70 million horses are not needed, the empire can feed another 300 million people, or raise the food level of the existing 700 million people to another standard!

This is why Luo Zhixue promotes the internal combustion engine industry. In Luo Zhixue's eyes, the internal combustion engine industry, in addition to its obvious benefits of being an agricultural tool, a means of transportation, and promoting industrial development, also has the following benefits: automobiles, tractors, trucks, etc. Internal combustion engine application platforms such as passenger cars can eliminate horses that consume a lot of farmland resources.

It is a strategic tool to change the pattern of agricultural industry, increase per capita food consumption, and improve people's living standards...

From this perspective, in Luo Zhixue's eyes, this thing is much more important than any new guns.

After all, the so-called economic development is just for those two people to eat!