I want to be emperor

Chapter 1073 Export of Rifled Weapons

In order to ensure the long-term advantage of the Chu Empire over the indigenous countries, Luo Zhixue has long pursued a policy of technological blockade.

In particular, the restrictions on various industrial equipment are very strict. Not to mention that the indigenous people cannot buy it, even the factories established by the Chu people in the indigenous-controlled areas cannot purchase equipment.

Furthermore, even in many administrative territories, many key and sensitive equipment are also restricted.

These are all intended to limit the industrial development of the indigenous people to prevent a challenger from emerging decades later.

In this environment, it is actually very difficult for indigenous countries to follow the example of the empire in industrialization... If nothing else, you can't even buy a steam engine, so how can you talk about industrialization?

Of course, this does not mean that those indigenous countries do not have any industrial equipment. In fact, they still do. Many indigenous countries have secretly obtained some equipment through some smuggling channels, but these sneaky behaviors are destined to obtain very valuable equipment. There are few, and it cannot be used openly, which is destined to have a very limited impact.

Once large-scale smuggling is carried out and Guangming Production's factory is put into production...if it is discovered by the Chu people, the Chu people will directly send troops to destroy it by force, regardless of how many talents you have!

It can even be said that... the Chu people do not even allow these indigenous countries to develop and manufacture industrial equipment for production.

This will naturally arouse opposition from many indigenous countries, but opposition is useless... After all, you can't defeat it again and again.

What you can't get on the battlefield, don't expect to get it at the negotiation table.

The people of Chu state have made it clear that they do not allow you to engage in industrialization. If you dare to engage in industrialization, I will destroy the country. What can you do...

However, this situation cannot always be like this. Sooner or later it will change...even now it is beginning to change gradually.

For example, in the transportation, mining and agriculture industries, the Great Chu Empire has successively relaxed restrictions and allowed enterprises run by Chu people in indigenous countries to apply for the purchase of equipment used in the industry.

Because the Chu people need these equipment to obtain more agricultural products, mineral products and facilitate transportation... It seems to be for the Chu people themselves, but it is inevitable that Chu's industrial equipment still enters the indigenous countries through this way. The indigenous people began to come into contact with various advanced industrial equipment.

Right now it’s just the three major industries mentioned above… but what about in the future?

As time goes by, the economy continues to develop, and the internal changes in the indigenous countries, the Chu Empire will gradually open up more industrial fields sooner or later in the future.

It’s just that the process will be very long.

Compared with the relatively strict restrictions on industrial production equipment, in the field of industrial and civilian consumer goods, the Da Chu Empire has no restrictions and basically sells anything as long as it is not too sensitive.

Even the cars that just appeared... have now begun to be exported sporadically. Although the export volume is only about a few dozen, it can be seen from this that the Chu people are really open to exports.

Not to mention other consumer goods, basically everything is sold as long as you aboriginals can afford it.

So even in an aboriginal city like London, you can now see many advanced products from the Dachu Empire, including elevators...

The reason why there are no restrictions on civilian industrial consumer goods is because these things are originally used to balance trade and harvest the wealth of the indigenous people... The indigenous people have worked hard to grow food and mine minerals, but the Chu people can just grab it. , but the operation is always troublesome and the cost is high. It is better to replace it with a small number of industrial consumer products.

The reason why the Chu people did not rob directly was definitely not because the Chu people discovered their conscience... It was purely because the Chu people discovered that the cost of doing business and exchange was lower than directly robbing...

Stealing things directly sounds easy, but in fact the cost is not small... This direct robbery means war. Even if it is not a large-scale war, there will be continuous suppression of various kinds, and these require military costs. .

For example, if a large number of foreign legions are stationed in an indigenous area for a long time, and troops are sent from time to time to attack the resistance, the military cost is not low.

If you do business... it doesn't cost much to sell them high value-added industrial consumer goods directly, and the natives are willing and even happy... because they can also obtain advanced industrial consumer goods for daily life through this kind of transaction. , improve the quality of life.

For the empire, in addition to being low in cost, these exports can also bring some jobs, taxes, etc.

In short, it is good for both parties, and it is much more cost-effective than grabbing it directly.

This is why the people of Chu do not rob directly, but want to do business.

Of course, the Chu people are only open to exporting civilian industrial consumer goods. There are many restrictions on industrial production equipment, and there are also many restrictions in the field of military consumer goods.

Until now, except for a few small vassal countries established by the Chinese, such as the Kingdom of the United States and Song Dynasty, and the Kingdom of West Africa, which have obtained the import rights to single-shot rifled rifles and early rifled artillery, other indigenous countries have still not been able to obtain rifled artillery. Import rights for weapons.

The weapons and equipment currently exported by the Da Chu Empire are mainly percussion guns and smoothbore cannons. The export of rifled weapons has not been liberalized.

However, according to the current situation, this situation cannot last for long... On the one hand, due to the smuggling of various weapons, many Chu civilian rifled weapons have fallen into the hands of various indigenous countries through various smuggling channels.

Another factor is the loss factor on the battlefield, which has led to the loss of some single-shot rifles used by the Foreign Legion.

The last factor is that various indigenous countries have successively obtained some production equipment through sneaky smuggling channels, and even produced small quantities of single-shot rifles on their own with the assistance of illegal Chu engineers.

All of this has led to the fact that in many indigenous-controlled areas, there are actually a lot of rifled weapons, and there are also a lot of them in the hands of the resistance forces.

In recent times, when the Chu army was performing missions with the Foreign Legion in Europe, it had several battles with resistance forces holding single-shot rifled weapons.

Based on this situation, the Chu army even considered upgrading and re-equipping the foreign legion and equipping them with some continuous-fire Type 25 rifles.

At the same time, some of the puppet armies of the vassal states that the Chu State has relatively strong control are still using percussion rifles and cannot defeat some resistance armies. Therefore, they are also considering equipping these puppet servant armies with some single-shot rifles.

This means that it has become a trend for Chu State to further liberalize the export of single-shot rifles... This gap has been opened, and the follow-up is only a matter of time.

For this situation, the industrial sector is supportive, because it means that the industrial sector can obtain more orders and profits.

In fact, even the military has adopted a supportive attitude.

This mainly involves a very key factor, that is, the indigenous people who have rifled weapons have almost no way to produce them on their own, and they cannot even provide themselves with ammunition. As for a very small number of smuggled equipment, although they are secretly produced, the quantity is not large and the impact is Not big either.

Unlike a flash cap percussion gun, this thing is about as difficult to make as a flintlock gun... both are front-loading muskets. At least as far as the gun itself is concerned, the technical difficulty is not much different from that of a flintlock gun. Even if you use an ancient rolled leather to forge a barrel, you can make it. The only thing that is a little difficult should be the flash cap, but this thing will change over time. In the past, some indigenous countries were actually able to produce small quantities of food by hand.

But the rifled gun is different... Not to mention how to process and produce this thing, the material of the barrel alone is not something that the indigenous people can handle.

Even many indigenous countries now have secret small arsenals built by secretly smuggling equipment. In addition to the equipment being smuggled from Chu, even the raw materials are also secretly smuggled.

How can I put it this way, the indigenous people can produce flash cap guns on their own despite their hard work... and can even initially cultivate their own defense industry and even industrial system based on these.

But rifled guns...don't count on that. Even if the Chu people throw you the machinery and equipment to make guns, you won't be able to produce them without the raw materials.

Even if materials and equipment are available, mass production cannot be achieved without sufficient high-tech personnel and corresponding production processes.

The technical threshold for rifled guns has been further raised, and it has been raised to a level that is beyond the reach of indigenous countries.

In this context, if Chu State lets go of the export of single-shot rifles, the indigenous country's already poor handmade workshop arsenal will instantly lose any use... There will be no other way except bankruptcy.

This will further undermine the confidence of indigenous countries in developing independent defense industries.

At the same time, if there is a demand, the Chu people will cut off the supply of ammunition at any time, and these seemingly advanced rifled muskets will become fire sticks.

Unlike flintlock guns, even if the Chu people cut off the supply, they could still maintain the supply of ammunition through manual production.

Because the bullets used in single-shot rifles are metal bullets... This thing is undoubtedly super technology for the indigenous people and cannot be solved at all.

Similarly, this is also the reason why the Chu State previously released the export authority of rifled weapons from the Kingdom of the United States, Song Dynasty, and the Kingdom of West Africa... It is very simple, because it does not want these satellite countries established by the Chu people to develop their own defense industries.

In the future, the Chu people will inevitably use the same routine on other vassal states, but this time will still be a little long.

People from the Chu State... When it comes to arms exports, they have always sold low-end weapons as long as they can. They will not export advanced-generation weapons unless necessary... You have to know that until now, The weapons widely exported by the Chu people in Africa are all kinds of spears, matchlocks, swords, etc. They don't even export flintlock guns!

Why, because Africa has no ability to produce weapons at all... At the same time, the Chu people have blocked and controlled the entire African consumer market. In this case, the Chu people naturally sell low-end products to make money.

The markets in West Asia and Europe are relatively high-end... Because the local indigenous countries can basically produce their own muskets, there is basically no technical threshold for flintlock guns.

So back then, the people of the Chu State directly exported percussion pistols and launched a dimensionality reduction attack... killing countless weapons workshops of the indigenous Europeans in West Asia at once.

Now, some indigenous countries in Europe have been able to imitate flash cap percussion guns, and a very small number of indigenous countries have even produced single-shot rifles by secretly smuggling equipment and raw materials. The people of Chu are thinking about exporting single-shot rifles to make money at the same time. The wave suppresses the ability and confidence of indigenous countries to produce weapons.

Of course, the reason for this idea is that the Chu people have begun to serve more advanced smokeless gunpowder guns on a large scale.

The Type 27 rifle has been officially finalized and mass production has begun to equip the Army and Navy Guards.

At the same time, the senior leaders of the Dachu Empire have decided to complete the replacement of Type 27 rifles and corresponding machine guns and even artillery in the front-line troops in the next few years.

Within ten years, the replacement of smokeless firearms and artillery in the regular army will be completed, and firearms and even artillery using black powder propellant will be completely eliminated.

According to this plan, with the entry of smokeless firearms into service, some Type 24 rifles have been transferred from first-line troops to second-line troops. At the same time, the second-line troops are equipped with Type 25 rifles and Type 26 rifles. Withdrew from the regular army one after another.

Among them, the Type 25 repeating rifle, which still has 11mm black powder bullets, will be handed over to the Foreign Legion one after another... The Foreign Legion currently uses Type 19 rifles and Type 18 rifles, both of which use It's an 11mm rifle bullet, which happens to be universal.

In addition, the Type 26 rifle that uses eight millimeter black powder bullets... This thing is very easy to jam bullets and has been criticized conservatively... Therefore, this rifle will be retired directly one after another and then be sealed.

But the Type 24 rifle will continue to be in service for a long time in the future... This thing is still the main rifle of the first-line troops, and will also be the main rifle of a large number of second- and third-line regular troops in the future.

Even after the regular army retires from the field and garrison force, this thing will not be directly decommissioned and sealed or handed over to the foreign legion. Instead, it will be handed over to militia forces in various places to replace the Type 18 that is still widely equipped in the militia forces. and the Type Nineteen rifle.

According to the strategic plan of the senior officials of the Dachu Empire Military Academy, within ten years, all regular armies, including the first-line, second-line field troops and local garrison troops, will fully adopt eight-millimeter smokeless cartridges for rifles and machine guns... This time schedule is The planning is based on the annual output of Type 27 rifles!

After all, the production capacity is only about 300,000 pieces a year, and the number of various regular armies is quite large, which is almost enough within ten years.

As for increasing production capacity... it's not impossible, but if millions of rifles are produced in just three to five years, these rifle arsenals will have to stop production...

Weapons production in peacetime is all about steady flow and no random explosion of production capacity.

In addition to the regular army, the militia forces will use Type 24 rifles retired from the regular army that use eight-millimeter black powder bullets and corresponding machine guns...

The Foreign Legion uses Type 19 rifles, Type 18 rifles, Type 25 repeating rifles and machine guns using 11mm black powder bullets.

However, the above two types of black powder bullets have also been discontinued... Whether it is the Foreign Legion or the militia, the two types of black powder bullets they use are actually in stock. When the inventory is used up, it will naturally be time to replace them with smokeless firearms. It's time.

It’s just that the Chu Empire’s inventory of these two types of black powder bullets is very large...

Among them, the 11mm black powder bullets were produced for more than ten years from the 1930s to the 1940s, but the number used by the regular army was actually very small... After all, there was no large-scale war, daily training and public security The bullets consumed in combat are actually very limited.

After the Foreign Legion used the Type 18 and Type 19 rifles, the usage was larger, but the size was limited.

According to estimates from the Military Academy...these 11mm black powder bullets in stock alone are enough for the Foreign Legion, which frequently performs low-intensity combat missions, to continue using them for ten years!

At the same time, there are also a lot of eight-millimeter black powder bullets. Until now, these are still the main bullets used by the regular army. The overall output is slightly less than the 11-millimeter rifle bullets, but not much less... If they are used by militia forces in the future It is also difficult to use up in a short time, and it is estimated that some of it will have to be used by the Foreign Legion in the future.

Therefore, it is estimated that it will take about fifteen years until the stocks of these two types of black powder bullets are exhausted.

Fifteen years later, the Chu Empire will also take advantage of the trend and fully enter the era of smoke-free drugs... and by that time, the army will probably be equipped with newer firearms and even bullets.

The updating of weapons and equipment from generation to generation is also an important reason why Chu State gradually liberalized the export of advanced weapons.

If they are still using 11mm single-shot rifles, the Chu people will not export single-shot rifles at all. After all, the Chu army wants to maintain the generation gap advantage of two to three generations of weapons and equipment.

(End of this chapter)