I want to be emperor

Song's Apparel Company appeared at the National Defense Equipment Exhibition, which has little impact on most companies in the defense industry and does not concern them.

But for several other large domestic textile companies involved in the supply of military textiles, that is different.

For example, Hantian Textile Company, which is currently the largest supplier of uniforms for the imperial military and police and the main supplier of military uniforms for the army, feels a huge threat from the involvement of Song Clothing Company.

Because there are many types of military textiles, including quilts, military shoes, backpacks, tents, rainproof cloths and military uniforms, etc.

Among the many military textile products of Hantian Textile Company, military uniforms account for a considerable share.

The intervention of Song's Clothing Company made them feel the crisis... If an ordinary textile company was involved in the field of military uniforms, then Hantian Textile Company would not think it was a big deal. After all, it provides military and police uniforms to various branches of the military, as well as local patrol police and tax police. There are many textile companies, but to be honest, everyone’s products are similar... The so-called market competition focuses more on off-site factors rather than product performance... How many orders you can get depends on quality, connections, and influence. thing.

As an important military uniform supplier to the military before the founding of the People's Republic of China, Hantian Textile Company has sufficient confidence in this aspect...

However, Song's Clothing Company is different... They do not rely on off-site factors, but on their top patented product soft canvas... And this thing is unique to Song's Clothing Company, and other textile companies have So far, the production process and patent issues of soft canvas have not been solved well.

However, the soft canvas produced by Song's Clothing Company is wear-resistant, soft, and cheap at the same time... This is terrible, because this kind of fabric is naturally suitable for military uniforms, especially combat uniforms and training uniforms. use.

In the Army's previous small batch purchases, the feedback from soldiers was very good.

As a result, the problem will be huge... If something goes wrong, the originally solid military uniform market may be pried open with a big hole.

Therefore, Hantian Textile Company attaches great importance to Song Clothing Company's participation in the exhibition. In order to cope with it... they have also come up with some new technologies and new products of their own, including new fabrics they developed for the new generation of training uniforms... Although this kind of fabric is much better than previous fabrics, it still has a certain distance compared to the soft canvas of Song Clothing Company.

In addition, they have also developed a new generation of tarpaulins, which will be used in many fields such as tents and raincoats.

In short, it is to do everything possible to ensure market share while ensuring advantages in other areas.

Keep their reputation as the largest supplier of military textiles!

Some changes in military textiles have a great impact on related companies, and are major events that can determine the rise or fall of a company or even its survival.

But for the high-ranking officials of the empire, it is an ordinary matter. The military does not pay much attention to the changes in these military textiles... After all, although there are some differences between using cotton for training uniforms and using soft canvas for training uniforms, the difference is not. It's very large, and it can't be said to have a significant impact on combat effectiveness.

It’s a state where it’s better to have something, but it doesn’t matter if you don’t have it.

Relatively speaking, what can really affect the combat effectiveness of the Chu army, and even the global military pattern in the next twenty or thirty years according to conservative estimates, is the application of smokeless propellants!

Specifically embodied in a new generation of standard rifles, pistols, and machine guns.

A new generation of artillery using smokeless propellant!

The successful development of smokeless propellant will undoubtedly bring the Chu Army to a whole new level!

Because smokeless propellant has many advantages over black powder.

The first is smoke... Don’t underestimate the impact of smoke. In actual combat, if guns use black powder, each shot will produce a large amount of smoke. After a rifleman shoots several times in a row, if there is no windy weather, then he will be in a The position will soon be completely shrouded in thick smoke... It is impossible to see the enemy in front clearly... This is why even in the rifled era, the infantry commanders of the Chu Army are still often the same as in the line era. The reason for commanding the battle on horseback...

It's not that they are not afraid of death, but the smoke on the battlefield is too thick and you can't see without riding a horse... Of course, this also has something to do with the fact that the natives' muskets are too bad to hit!

This problem is even more serious in artillery. If the artillery fires too fast and the artillery is deployed too densely, it will soon be shrouded in thick smoke.

This is not obvious in the army. After all, the army's artillery deployment is generally scattered, and the firing rate of the artillery is slow, so it has little impact.

But the impact on the navy is relatively large... Because the space on the warship is small, and there are many artillery deployments, even if the artillery fire rate is slow, but after the fight, if God is not good and the wind does not blow... then the entire sea area It will soon be shrouded in smoke... If the navy's naval guns adopt half-rapid fire or even barrel-retracting rapid-fire cannons, it will be even worse.

In the original Sino-Japanese War of 1898, both sides used black powder, so that after the fight, the entire sea was filled with smoke, making signal flag communication impossible, and many warships were forced to rely on whistles for simple communication!

There was no way, as the two sides continued to fight, the sea surface was filled with smoke, and the visual distance was very low...

Therefore, the difference between smoke and smoke-free has a huge impact on combat effectiveness.

The second major difference is that smokeless gunpowder can explode with more powerful energy, and at the same time, through special processing technology, the burning rate of the propellant is reduced!

The sum of the two means that with the same weight of propellant, bullets or shells can be driven farther... which is an effective increase in range.

As for there are some advantages such as less residue after launch.

The combination of many advantages is enough to change tactics and even the way of war.

This is the reason why the big guys from the Military Academy in the Da Chu Empire attach so much importance to smokeless propellant, and after the successful development of smokeless propellant, they immediately finalized a variety of smokeless propellant standard bullets and artillery shells.

This allows major manufacturers to develop new guns based on the new generation of standard bullets and shells.

One of the highlights of today's national defense equipment exhibition is Xiang Luo Zhixue's many new guns using smokeless propellants that are currently in development and testing.

Luo Zhixue led people all the way into the venue, looking around as he walked, but what he was looking at now were ordinary things. When he reached the firearms exhibition area, he saw the candidate models of various new rifles that had been debated for a long time.

As the highlight of today and the project that many are most concerned about, the new rifle project is placed in the middle of the hall. The five major weapons companies have their subsidiaries participating.

When Luo Zhixue came up to the Hebei Arms Company's booth, a co-organizer of the new generation rifle project from the Hebei Arms Company came forward to introduce Luo Zhixue.

The person pointed at the rifle on the table and said: "This is a new rifle developed by Tianjin Firearms Company, a subsidiary of our company. This rifle uses a simple and reliable front locking and rotating rear bolt mechanism. This bolt structure is used in The Type 18 rifle has always been very stable and reliable since its use, and it is currently the two mainstream bolt mechanism structures in our current rifles!"

Luo Zhixue listened and watched at the same time. At this time, he saw that this new rifle had a very obvious appearance feature, that is because it did not have a downward protruding magazine/magazine.

This kind of no-bulge magazine/magazine can really only be seen in old-fashioned single-shot rifles in the contemporary Chu Empire.

For example, the Type 18 rifle and the Type 19 rifle are single-shot rifles, so naturally there is no magazine or magazine. In addition, the tubular magazine used by the Qiming rifle does not have a downward magazine... But among these three rifles, Both single-shot rifles were retired from the regular army and handed over to militia units and the Foreign Legion.

The Qiming rifle is a bit special. Although it is an old gun and has an immature in-tube magazine, it is still a repeating rifle. Therefore, it is still in service with the second-line troops of the armed tax police or in reserve... Later, the Chu State began For repeating rifles, between the tubular magazine and the under-bulged magazine, Hebei Arms Company chose the under-bulged magazine, and then the Type 25 rifle that still fired 11mm rifle bullets appeared...but this kind of rifle It is a very typical temporary transition product. Only more than 200,000 units were produced before it was discontinued. It is currently serving in some C-level local garrison units.

Because it wasn't long before the Huguang Arms Company's eight-millimeter caliber Type 24 rifle was put into service. It used a detachable undershoot magazine, allowing the Chu Army to officially enter the era of small-caliber rifles.

The output of this rifle is very large. It started trial production in the 40th year of Chengshun and reached large-scale mass production in the 42nd year. In the past few years, the annual output could reach more than 400,000 units. Until now, the output has exceeded two Millions.

This rifle, originally developed for the navy, has now become the main rifle of the army, the Guards, and the armed tax police, and is mainly equipped with the main forces.

In order to compete with this rifle, Hebei Arms Company developed the Type 26 rifle that fires eight-millimeter bullets. It still uses an under-bulged magazine. Unfortunately, this rifle has many problems, especially the problem of bullet jamming caused by flanged bullets. very serious.

Even though the Army had high hopes in the early stage, it once placed a huge order, which made the production of this rifle very large in the early stage, and the annual output once exceeded 200,000 pieces... However, as the problem of jammed bullets occurred frequently, the Army quickly reduced the order and This rifle was removed from the main force and transferred to the second-line troops for use. Although the initial output of this rifle was large, the output decreased rapidly later, so that the total output was only about 800,000 units!

Hebei Arms Company, in the early era of repeating rifles, did not do well. Both the Type 25 rifle and the Type 26 rifle could be said to have failed... neither could become the Army or Marine Corps. Recently, The main rifle of the Guards.

Although these two rifles have a combined production of one million pieces, the production volume is not small... But for these two rifles, if they cannot become the main standard rifles, it is a failure!

The above three types of magazine/magazine rifles are still in service, with a total number of about three million. Together they constitute the Dachu Empire's repeating rifle family, and they all have relatively consistent characteristics, that is, they all have a lower protrusion. Magazine/magazine!

And it must be mentioned here... Some army generals are extremely disgusted with this downward protruding magazine/magazine. They think that this downward protruding magazine/magazine seriously affects the tactical movements of the soldiers, and it looks too ugly. Unsightly.

The opinions of these people are also the main reason why the Army strongly requires that new rifles must use built-in magazines when selecting a new generation of rifles, and cannot have a chin removed.

As a result, Hebei Arms Company's new rifle uses a built-in magazine with a five-round bullet capacity, so there is no 'chin'.

After Luo Zhixue saw this thing, he felt more familiar with this new rifle... because this thing is highly similar to the traditional rifle in his memory, and it is similar to the Hanyang-made, 98-gadged, Mauser in movies and TV shows. K and the like are very similar.

In fact, their basic structures are almost the same...bolt-action rifles, in fact, there are only these few technical routes, either the British's rear-end locking, or the German's front-end locking; the magazine is either small There is a built-in magazine with a high capacity, or a large-capacity under-mounted magazine.

The new gun of Hebei Arms Company obviously adopts the technical route of front locking, rotating rear bolt action, and built-in magazine... This is also in line with their technical accumulation, and they are good at this kind of technology.

While Luo Zhixue listened, he took one of the guns over, weighed it briefly, then tried to aim the gun again, and played with it briefly.

At the same time, the person in charge of the Hebei Arms Company continued to introduce: "In terms of ammunition supply, we have adopted a double-row ammunition magazine design, which can effectively shorten the height of the magazine and make it completely built-in. When firing bullets, prevent the magazine from swooping down and affecting tactical movements."

"At the same time, combined with the fact that many old rifles can only load bullets one round at a time, resulting in too slow loading speed, we specially designed a loading bridge clip that can use the magazine to load five rounds of bullets at a time, making the loading rapid fire greatly Improve, effectively strengthen the firepower sustaining ability!"

"Firing 8 mm standard smokeless bullets, the muzzle velocity can reach meters per second, the maximum range can reach meters, and the effective range can reach meters. It has a long range and high accuracy!"

"The standard version of the gun is 1.11 meters long and weighs 3.1 kilograms. If used with a Type 42 short knife bayonet, the gun is 1.43 meters long and weighs 4.1 kilograms. It is very light; at the same time, the traditional gun can also be used If the type 32 dagger bayonet is used, the total length can reach one and a half meters, which can be used for bayonet combat."

"Because of the use of new materials and processes, the barrel has a very good life and can be used for a longer time. At the same time, the number of parts is small and maintenance is simple, which can also effectively reduce production costs!"

As the introducer continued to introduce, many people nodded one after another just listening to the data on paper...including Luo Zhixue himself.

Judging from the paper data, this gun is indeed good... No wonder the people in the Army are trying to figure out how to mess with this thing.

But...this is just paper data.

Because this gun is a new design and uses a lot of new materials and new processes, there will always be some inexplicable problems with this gun, which is very annoying... Hebei Arms Company has not completely solved these problems until now. question.

The thing is good...but it currently only exists on paper, and we don't know when it will be put into production.

On the other hand, the new rifles developed by Huguang Arms Company are different...it doesn't seem to have much new technology, but they are stable!

This so-called new gun is actually an improvement on the Type 24 rifle, and the improvement is not large. The technology is mature, stable and controllable... The most important thing is that when they introduced it, they said that as long as If necessary, they can mass-produce it at any time...

And in this case, don't think that their new guns are not good...in fact, the performance of their new guns is still very good.

After using the new bullet, the muzzle velocity can reach 660 meters per second, and the range and accuracy are also very good, not much worse than the new gun of Hebei Arms Company.

At the same time, their unique detachable double-row ammunition magazine can hold ten rounds of ammunition, and the magazine can be changed directly... This rate of fire is directly off the charts. During the live ammunition test session, I saw the tester's rapid speed When shooting, Luo Zhixue almost thought it was a semi-automatic rifle...

The rate of fire advantage of this thing is too great... If equipped with this thing, even if the semi-automatic rifle matures decades later, there is no need to replace it with a semi-automatic rifle, and it can be used until the era of fully automatic rifles!

At the same time, the technology of this rifle is mature, and it can be mass-produced directly using the production line of the Type 24 rifle with slight modifications... At the same time, because there is no R&D funding, there is no need to dilute the R&D funding, resulting in a very low overall cost.

Someone from Huguang Arms Company told Luo Zhixue on the spot that as long as the order exceeds one million, the price can be as high as fifteen yuan per piece...

When the demonstration of the new gun reached this level, Luo Zhixue had already made the decision to choose the new gun from Huguang Arms Company...it was good in all aspects and mature.

As for Hebei Arms Company's new guns, they can also continue research and development, and then purchase test equipment on a small scale as a backup.

Anyway, the empire has a large army and many branches. At the same time, these two rifles still use the same kind of bullets, so there is no need to worry about logistical problems, so adding another standard rifle is not a big problem.

Of course, this is mainly to prevent Huguang Arms Company's new gun from falling off the chain and exposing huge flaws in the future. In this case, Hebei Arms Company's alternative plan can be used to replace it at any time.

When the size is large enough, you can't put all your eggs in the same basket, otherwise you will cry to death if the basket breaks!

At the same time, this can also continue to maintain healthy competition between Hebei Arms Company and Huguang Arms Company!

In the absence of obvious threats from external enemies, it is very important to maintain healthy competition within the defense industry to continue to improve the technical level of defense equipment without stagnating!

Therefore, although Tianjin Firearms Company's new rifle plan failed, Luo Zhixue and other senior military officials would still leave a way for them to survive.

After all, these are the only two domestic manufacturers capable of developing and producing new rifles... If they go bankrupt, only Hantian Arsenal will be left.

The military has always been very disgusted with or even rejected exclusive suppliers.