I want to be emperor

The Hebei Arms Company was also worried that things would be messed up, and the cavalry side should not be cheap... That's why they said this at this time.

Luo Zhixue felt that if this gun was produced and the cost was not expensive, it could really equip the cavalry on a large scale, and then improve the combat effectiveness of the cavalry. As for the reluctance of the cavalry... they will feel better after using it.

Immediately, he also nodded slightly: "Well, when it's finished, send a few over, and I'll check it out for you!"

As soon as Luo Zhixue said this, the person in charge of the Hebei Arms Company immediately laughed!
It shouldn't be a problem to sell this kind of advanced pistol for twenty or thirty Chu Yuan. It is a rifled gun anyway, and if nothing else happens, it will be the first rifled gun to be used in large quantities in the Great Chu Empire.

Twenty or thirty Chu Yuan is really not expensive!

The cavalry generals following behind frowned slightly... In order to sell pistols to them, these weapons companies really resorted to all kinds of indecent means.

The sales were unsuccessful before, but now they dare to go to His Majesty to sell them forcibly. Now if His Majesty likes it and let them equip the cavalry, their cavalry troops will have to hold their noses and forcefully purchase it.

But they don't like this situation because it makes them feel like they're being force-fed shit.

They are the cavalry of the Great Chu Empire, invincible... Alas, they suffered a little in the early years of Jianguo, and they have been the invincible cavalry of the Great Chu Empire since then.

They don't need a pistol, it's a coward's weapon!

Therefore, even so, the silver reserves in the Great Chu Empire are actually increasing... and the depreciation is getting worse. In a few years, I am afraid that the gold and silver coins will only be one to seventeen, or even one to twenty. went……

So in reality, there is no such thing as foreign countries taking banknotes to exchange for gold... because they themselves use gold to pay the merchants of the Great Chu Empire!

Not for anything else, but because chocolate can quickly replenish a lot of energy for soldiers.

It's just that this has led to many new problems, that is, the gold production of the Great Chu Empire itself is still relatively limited. Even if it controls some gold production in North America and Southeast Asia, the gold production of the Great Chu Empire is still not much. The combined annual gold output of multiple sites is only a few tens of tons.

Therefore, the military procurement of the Great Chu Empire included a large number of various military supplies in addition to guns.

But the real key problem is not here, but the material of the barrel.

Ordinary people are only willing to buy a few cans during the holidays, or to give gifts to others, or after a family get together, they open a can to satisfy their hunger, and they still keep the cans and bottles to hold things after eating.

After watching the pistol, I saw a lot of other firearms, such as the cavalry model, or the flared front-loading rifle, and other more exotic weapons, such as a large-caliber shotgun designed for close-range combat. This thing is a front-loading smoothbore large-caliber shotgun fired by a cap.

Among other things, you don’t see much of chocolate in the market. Ordinary middle-class families have never even heard of this thing, but three years ago, this thing has become a One of the military emergency rations of the Great Chu Empire began to distribute chocolates to soldiers performing combat missions.

Limited by the shortage of materials and processing level, the Great Chu Empire is still facing difficulties in iron rifled artillery.

They are the brave and invincible cavalry of the Great Chu Empire, and a saber is enough!

In the 25th year of Chengshun, the regular military expenditure of the Great Chu Empire, because of the rapid popularization of high-pressure steam engines in recent years, the large-scale use of trains, ships, and industrial high-pressure steam engines, stimulated the explosive development of the Great Chu Empire's domestic economy, which in turn led to the rapid development of the Great Chu Empire. The tax revenue of the Chu Empire also rose steadily, reaching more than 4 million Chu Yuan.

Because of the great benefits of joining the army, the enthusiasm for joining the army in the Great Chu Empire is very high.

But Luo Zhixue ignored these cavalry generals, a group of old men, playing hypocritically with pistols every day... As the world's largest industrial country, the empire has been industrialized for more than [-] years, and some cavalrymen are playing with matchlock cavalry pistols .

In this regard, Luo Zhixue encouraged the defense industry, telling them not to be discouraged, but to maintain fighting spirit, continue to study various technical problems, and strive to produce rifled artillery as soon as possible.

In terms of food, the military of the Great Chu Empire, whether it is the army, navy or guards, is quite good.

Four years later, those who can continue to serve as non-commissioned officers in the army will not be mentioned, only those who have retired.

In addition, all kinds of biscuits are also a kind of military rations.

It is not the best field but the worst field that determines the level of the industrial system.

This has led to huge profit margins. Those European merchants who came to the Great Chu Empire to trade, all bought strings of silver to purchase the goods of the Great Chu Empire, and sometimes they even directly bought gold back...

If you want to engrave rifling, whether it is a gun or a cannon, the strength must first be guaranteed. If the strength is not up to standard, the rifled artillery will be polished after a few times, and the polished rifled cannon It's useless.

Not to mention the people at the bottom, even the seemingly decent middle class in some cities and the so-called small landlords in rural areas cannot compare with an ordinary army soldier in terms of food.

Then there are hats and shoes, tactical gloves, rain capes, straps, water bottles, lunch boxes, armed belts, bullet bags, blankets, backpacks, and a whole bunch of other things.

Artillery is the god of war and the most indispensable weapon in modern warfare. You can live without firearms, but you cannot live without artillery!
Luo Zhixue hopes that in today's weapons exhibition, those new artillery can bring him some surprises, even if it is some laboratory equipment or conceptual equipment.

The same goes for candy.

After serving for three years, soldiers can study in vocational skills training classes in the army, so that in a certain province after retiring, those who choose to change jobs can be arranged to work in major government-run enterprises, or they can be some assistants in various administrative agencies Class jobs, such as security guards, drivers and the like.

Even if it is specific to merchants, it is more convenient and more profitable for you to bring a ship of industrial goods out than to bring a ship of silver out for trade.

Although these things seem to be less important than guns, they will also greatly affect the combat effectiveness of the army.

That is the scar of the cavalry of the Great Chu Empire, a bleak history that cannot be looked back!
This period of history has also led to why the cavalry of the Great Chu Empire now admire the saber charge so much... because they were defeated by the charge of the frontier cavalry of the Ming army. The infantry played in a dense array, and finally came up with a wall-riding charge to kill the Ming army's frontier cavalry, even the Eastern captive cavalry, and even a large number of Mongolian cavalry.

Middle and upper-class kids, they want to apply for the military academy and then become officers. It’s best if they can get along in the army. If they can’t get along, they can wait until they retire and transfer to a local government to continue serving as officials. This will help improve their social status and even their family’s. of great benefit.

If it is a firearm, although the current smelting level of the Great Chu Empire cannot cast a barrel of sufficient strength at one time, the strength of the barrel can still be strengthened by hot forging before processing.

In the end, the top leaders of the Great Chu Empire simply gritted their teeth and directly came to implement the gold standard in advance. According to the domestic gold coin ratio at that time, it was stipulated that each Chu Yuan was worth [-] grams of gold.

Tinplate cans do not require any preservative additives, and the production is very simple. You only need to put cooked food in the can and seal it completely, and finally sterilize it at high temperature.

But when those big soldiers were on the front line, they could only eat canned food because they couldn't eat normal meals. After eating for a long time, they could eat themselves until they vomited...

You know, the canned meat of the Great Chu Empire is all genuine canned meat, not some canned luncheon meat produced by the US military in later generations... It’s not that I don’t want to do it, but the technology is not so awesome. Also eat canned luncheon meat that won't kill you.

This performance is actually enough to ensure the absolute advantage of the army when facing the indigenous army.

However, the so-called military rations mentioned above are all emergency military rations. They are only eaten when the supply line in the rear is not normal during combat and the cooks and soldiers cannot provide normal food for the soldiers.

Charging on the wall, concealing the kill with a saber, this is the romance of cavalry!
What kind of cavalry is playing with a pistol!

The reason why the Great Chu Empire quickly switched to the gold standard after establishing the silver standard was that the ratio of gold and silver in the country and the world was too large.

This is why the Great Chu Empire has always been overcrowded when it recruits recruits every year.

Although the Chu Yuan of the Great Chu Empire implemented the silver standard in the early days, they found that the silver standard was unreliable within a few years... and then quickly changed to the gold standard. Even though the gold reserves at that time were not sufficient, they still directly changed For the sake of the gold standard, in order to avoid a run on gold, an indirect gold standard was specially set up, that is, only banks can take banknotes to the central bank to exchange for gold, ordinary institutions and individuals cannot.

From all kinds of cans to biscuits, chocolates, candies, and tea.

You are shameless, but I still have shame.

Moreover, the pistol cavalry can easily remind the cavalry bosses of the Great Chu Empire with very bad memories: In the early years of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the cavalry of the Great Chu Empire Army once formed a large number of pistol cavalry, but they were killed by the Ming army. The frontier cavalry is full of heads!
There are not many defeats in the history of the Great Chu Empire, but cavalry accounted for more than half of them... and most of the cavalry who created these defeats were pistol cavalry!

It’s not that there aren’t enough gold reserves in the mainland of the Great Chu Empire and the many overseas territories and colonies controlled by the outside world. In fact, there are more... But the problem is that it hasn’t been surveyed yet or the mining technology is not up to standard.

The Great Chu Empire had a trade surplus, and this surplus was particularly large. Most of the countries that did business with the Great Chu Empire had to pay with gold and silver in addition to various local products.

Most bacteria will die at high temperature.

At this point in the development of artillery, it is actually time to promote rifled artillery, but compared to the technical difficulty of firearms, the rifled artillery is even more difficult.

As a comparison, the Qing Dynasty in the eighteenth century, that is, the middle of the Qing Dynasty, has entered a stable period. Well, it was the so-called Kangxi and Qianlong prosperity. In the 30th year of Qianlong, its central fiscal revenue was only about 5000 million taels. , not much less!

Chocolate is expensive these days, and sweets are also expensive, which is actually hard for ordinary people to eat.

At the same time, there are more and more domestic gold reserves, and a large amount of gold has been obtained from foreign trade, especially from places such as Fusang and America. These golds eventually entered the central bank treasury under the Financial Management Department of the Great Chu Empire Here, it is used as the reserve fund of the gold standard, and the current scale has exceeded [-] tons, and this number is still rising.

At the same time, when carrying out combat missions, it is also necessary to distribute emergency dry food, candies, cigarettes and other supplies to soldiers.

Whether it is bronze artillery or cast iron artillery, it is actually made in this way.

Moreover, the silver in the Qianlong Dynasty was not as valuable as the Chu Yuan of the Great Chu Empire today, because the Chu Yuan of the Great Chu Empire is now on the gold standard.

But even now, the Great Chu Empire seldom said that it brought a large amount of silver to do business with the aborigines, taking advantage of the local low gold-silver ratio to plunder their gold.

Now it is said that new pistols will be equipped, which makes the cavalry generals very upset.

As a result, conventional military spending has also increased a lot. This year, it has broken through the 6000 million mark, reaching 300 million Chu yuan!

As for the army, they are even more reluctant, preferring to continue to use bronze artillery.

Because the Great Chu Empire has had a trade surplus for so many years, and it is still a huge trade surplus... Most of the time, it is actually those natives who buy the products of the Great Chu Empire with gold, silver or various local products .

The Great Chu Empire originally wanted to obtain more gold through foreign trade, and planned to establish a gold standard. Unexpectedly, after a few years of doing so, the domestic gold reserves were not much, but instead, a large amount of silver flowed in, which once gave the Great Chu Empire The financial environment caused a lot of trouble.

As for foreign countries... the colonies of the Great Chu Empire naturally don't need to think about it, and the indigenous countries that do business, such as the countries in Europe, actually don't keep the paper money of the Great Chu Empire in their hands, and often buy it on the spot. into various industrial commodities.

Just rifling the gun barrel is not so easy. After all, artillery is a big guy, and processing is not easy. If you want to rifle the artillery, the processing difficulty is not small.

However, to Luo Zhixue's disappointment, compared with the rapid development of firearms and weapons, the advancement of artillery technology is obviously slower.

First make a model, then pour it, and then expand the diameter of the gun barrel and process the surface after the pouring is formed, and finally make the gun barrel brilliant.

Those who are unwilling to accept the job change arrangement can also directly start your new life with a large sum of retirement compensation.

It's not that I don't want to, but it's not necessary!

From this, you will know why the cavalry generals of the Great Chu Empire hate pistols and pistol cavalry so much.

Not as much as the regular military expenditure of the Great Chu Empire!

In the case of the indirect gold standard, it is actually equivalent to no exchange... because it is impossible for the domestic bank to exchange a large amount of banknotes for gold, there is no need for that.

Now Luo Zhixue simply looked at many kinds of military supplies, from tents to warm military uniforms in severe cold weather, to small military dry rations, candies, etc., Luo Zhixue looked at it like a horse on a horse.

On the whole, the military of the Great Chu Empire has tried its best to provide better emergency military rations to the soldiers performing combat missions on the front line.

Luo Zhixue did not find it strange after learning about the situation in detail. After all, the industrial base level of the Great Chu Empire is here, and the level is still relatively limited. Even if it develops well in special fields, industry is a system, not to say It is possible for a single industry to develop, but the entire industrial system needs to be developed.

This has also led to the fact that in today's artillery exhibition, there is no rifled artillery that can be put into practical use immediately.

This is a relatively scary number!

Soldiers not only eat enough, but eat well...

After the Great Chu Empire adopted the gold standard system, the currency value of the Chu Yuan was guaranteed and large-scale inflation was avoided.

Throughout Europe, the ratio of gold to silver has been maintained at about [-]:[-] for a long time, but in the Great Chu Empire, the ratio of gold to silver is only about [-]:[-].

There are also all kinds of canned food, although it is just a canned food, you don’t seem to think there is anything, but all kinds of canned food in the market of the Great Chu Empire are actually not cheap, especially all kinds of canned meat.

At the beginning, Chu Yuan was still based on the silver standard. For businessmen, the more silver they had, the more they could earn, while gold was just a precious metal commodity, not money!

But for the gun barrel, it is very difficult to carry out large-scale forging and improve the quality of the gun barrel with the current technical level.

After looking at the artillery, Luo Zhixue looked at many other military equipment.

After changing to the gold standard, the domestic silver continued to depreciate, and now it is basically the same as the international gold-silver ratio, which is about [-]:[-].

Military equipment is not just as simple as guns and artillery, but also a lot of other things.

After adopting the indirect gold standard, deflation caused by insufficient gold reserves was avoided.

For example, in the current Great Chu Empire Army, an ordinary soldier needs to be equipped with winter and summer military uniforms in addition to muskets. The military uniforms include regular uniforms and dresses.

As for elementary school... Now the military of the Great Chu Empire needs a diploma of elementary school to recruit recruits, so it is no longer purely illiterate.

Everything from canned meat to canned fruit.

Generally speaking, for many poor rural children, being a soldier is a precious opportunity for them to get rid of poverty and jump up the ranks.

Even today after more than 20 years of industrialization, among the ordinary people in the Great Chu Empire, the best food is still those bald soldiers.

The military rations used by the military of the Great Chu Empire are basically all kinds of cans, from the early glass cans to the current tinplate cans.

When stationed and marching normally, soldiers actually still eat ordinary meals, that is, staple foods such as rice or buns and steamed buns plus various traditional Chinese dishes.

It is worth noting that the Chu Yuan banknotes issued by the Great Chu Empire have far exceeded the value of [-] tons of gold... This is why the Great Chu Empire has adopted an indirect gold standard, because if the gold exchange is really released, The deposit standard system of the Great Chu Empire will come to an end in minutes.

Who am I ashamed of!

Therefore, this kind of tinplate can has a fairly long shelf life, and this unique advantage also makes various tinplate cans an indispensable military ration.

Today, 25 years after Chengshun, joining the army is still the best way for countless people in the Great Chu Empire to get ahead, including those middle and upper class children.

Now the Great Chu Empire Army is equipped with all kinds of new bronze field guns, and the performance is quite good. The 115mm standard field guns can have an effective range of about 1000 to [-] meters when firing solid shells.

Not to mention rear-loading rifled guns, even front-loaded rifled guns must be used first.

Depending on the situation, light half-body armor and helmets for infantry will be distributed. Whether to distribute them depends mainly on the enemy's equipment level. If the opponent is equipped with a large number of cold weapons, especially bows and arrows, then they will be distributed.

As for the low-level children, except for a very few talented people who can be sent all the way to become officers, most of them want to be soldiers... Although being a soldier is very tiring and hard, the various benefits are not worth mentioning. of.

At that time, although in order to deal with it, the Great Chu Empire specially set up a foreign trade gold settlement system, but in fact it was difficult for many trading companies to implement it, because they also want to make profits...

The cost of arming a soldier is not only as simple as a rifle, but also a lot of things.

However, this also has a negative effect, that is, the annual military expenditures rush...

The current artillery manufacturing of the Great Chu Empire is actually mainly casting.

However, the iron barrel produced in this way has a very poor service life after the rifling is engraved, and the cost is also greatly increased compared with the previous smoothbore iron cast artillery. Even the navy that can bear the higher cost finds it too much. They failed to make a decision to equip the front-loading rifled iron cast artillery.

After serving in the army for four years, not to mention being able to raise a peasant boy into a strong young man, he was also able to study in the military's internal study classes during his military service, and after passing the exam, he could obtain a diploma from a higher elementary school or even a junior high school.

If the opponent is equipped with a large number of firearms like the Russians, then they will not be issued.

But none of these could attract Luo Zhixue's attention. After looking at it like a horse on horseback, he went directly to the artillery exhibition area.

He even personally tried several types of military rations... Naturally, these military rations are not ordinary rice noodles, but military rations that can be stored for a long time, are easy to carry, and can be delivered to the front line in time.

Therefore, in addition to more exploration and development of gold production, Luo Zhixue also set his sights on South Africa!
Not only is there half of the world's existing gold reserves there, but the gold mines there are also easy to mine...

If this place can be occupied, then the gold standard system of the Great Chu Empire can't be said to be worry-free in the future, but it will definitely run stably for many years.

It’s just that South Africa is too far away from the mainland of the empire. If the Great Chu Empire wants to directly send troops, it will be more troublesome. After all, the nearest overseas colony of the Great Chu Empire to South Africa, that is, the "Red Mouth City" in the southern part of the Red Sea, is also 7000 kilometers away from South Africa. many kilometers...

This is not such an easy distance to cross!
After all, the road is not deserted and wild, nor is it only barbaric natives, but also a bunch of colonial ports of European countries such as the Dutch, Portuguese and even the British.

Looking at the globe, Luo Zhixue felt that it was necessary to call the people from the Western Trading Company over for a discussion to see if he could find a way to establish a colony in South Africa and occupy the gold mines there that had not been discovered by others in advance.