Iron Dynasty

Chapter 1125

“Since the Emperor has said so, we will let Lin Wentao have it easily, but you, Lin Wentao, must treat us to a meal.”

Amidst the roaring of machinery, Lu Tong and the other two had no choice but to accept.

For Lin Wentao, as long as he could get his hands on this batch of machine tools first, he would be willing to treat them to ten meals. He agreed readily.

A smile appeared in Xiao Ming’s eyes. He would not participate in the meal among the four of them. After all, wherever he appeared, the atmosphere would become tense, and the same was true for these people who were dedicated to scientific research.

However, during their argument, the three of them mentioned their respective research fields. So he asked, “Song Changping, what are the automatic weapons you mentioned?”

“Reporting to Your Majesty, your humble official has been researching the Han-style Rifle Mark II during this period. This is a semi-automatic rifle that utilizes the same gas-operated principle as the Changping-style machine gun. This rifle can automatically load bullets. At the same time, this rifle also has its own independent magazine. Compared to the first pull-bolt rifle, it is much more convenient than pulling the bolt after every shot.” Song Changping explained methodically.

Xiao Ming showed a look of satisfaction. The second Han-style rifle that Song Changping was talking about was basically equivalent to the M1 Garand rifle and the M1 Carbine from the World War II era.

After a bullet was fired from these firearms, they would use a portion of the gunpowder gas and the recoil to eject the shell casing, and automatically load a new bullet into the chamber, ready to be fired again at any time.

The advantage of this over a non-automatic rifle was naturally huge. If the Empire were to be equipped with this rifle, the army’s combat power would rise to another level.

However, Song Changping’s successful development of it was one thing, and equipping the army with it was another. This was also the reason why Song Changping was looking for high-precision machine tools.

Only when the military factory was equipped with high-precision machine tools could he achieve mass production in the military factory and then equip the army.

In that case, it would take the imperial army three to five years to be fully re-equipped.

“Excellent. But in addition to the rifles, you must also work hard on various types of firearms, such as sniper rifles, heavy machine guns, and pistols, to ensure the Empire’s army has a diverse range of weapons.” Xiao Ming said contemplatively.

Turning his head, he then asked Chen Qi, “What is your howitzer like?”

Chen Qi was already prepared, because every time Xiao Ming met with them, he would always ask about their recent research. He said, “Through the Battle of India this time, the feedback from the army to me is that the main casualties in the war were still caused by mortar bombardments. This is enough to show the importance of artillery support in a war. As long as the firepower density is sufficient, the enemy will be powerless to resist. Therefore, a large-caliber howitzer that has a similar attack effect to the mortar is extremely important.”

After a pause, he said, “This time, your humble official has developed a 122mm towed howitzer. This howitzer has a simple single-barrel design and a screw breechblock. It requires very precise parts, which is why we need high-precision machine tools.”

Xiao Ming nodded. Stalin once said that artillery was the god of war, which was enough to show the importance of artillery in a war.

Currently, the large-caliber artillery serving in the Empire’s army was still a flat-trajectory cannon. This kind of cannon was not good at attacking enemies hiding in trenches.

With the progress of the war, this kind of cannon was bound to be eliminated. The howitzer that Chen Qi was developing could replace the former flat-trajectory cannon.

“The rifles also need to be replaced, and the cannons also need to be replaced. The Empire’s army has so many men, and the number of retired weapons is not small.”

While new weapons were exciting, the retirement of old equipment also caused a bit of heartache.

Because the Empire’s technological development was too fast, the retirement of weapons was also very rapid. Now, it was basically being replaced every six years. For this reason, the Empire’s arsenal was storing a large number of weapons.

Lu Tong heard this and said, “Your Majesty, isn’t that simple? Why don’t we just sell these weapons? Now that the Europeans have been taught a good lesson by us, they would be willing to pay a lot of money to buy our weapons.”

“Nonsense. If we sell these weapons to the Europeans, what if they use them to fight us?” Zhang Liu was a cautious person, and he thought this was a bad idea.

Song Changping and Chen Qi, on the other hand, fully agreed with Lu Tong. They were on the same side, because as long as they sold the weapons, they would have a sufficient amount of money to develop brand new weapons.

“Zhang Liu, you’re wrong. When the Europeans gave their weapons to the Ottoman Empire for free, were they not afraid that the Ottoman Empire would turn around and fight them?” Chen Qi said. “In my opinion, the Europeans are very smart. Rather than letting the retired weapons rust, we should give them to the Ottoman Empire in exchange for benefits. After all, they all have brand new weapons now.”

Song Changping echoed, “Exactly. Anyway, we already have more advantageous weapons, and Europe is very far away from us. They have to pass through the ocean to get here, and the Empire’s navy is not just for show.”

“In that case, what you said makes some sense.” Zhang Liu came to his senses.

Song Changping continued, “The current industrial capacity of Europe is limited. Even if we sell them the Han-style rifles, they do not have the ability to manufacture bullets. In that case, they will have to continuously buy bullets from the Empire, which would be a huge income for us.”

“Exactly. Besides, the Empire now has tanks. Even if they had Han-style rifles, how could they stop the Empire’s steel torrent? And by the time they master the technology for manufacturing bullets, who knows what kind of weapons the Empire will have then?” Chen Qi said with confidence.

Xiao Ming’s eyes swept back and forth over the five of them. In fact, the Empire was already using retired equipment to gain benefits.

For example, the current assistance to Persia and France. By using weapons that were retired from before, the Empire achieved the goals of obtaining petroleum for free and causing chaos in Europe.

So, this was a worthwhile business deal.

As for the Han-style rifle and the flat-trajectory cannon, these two weapons might be retired in the next three to five years, and he also had his own ideas about them.

Just as Chen Qi said, the Empire now did not have to worry about the impact of selling weapons to other countries, because the Empire would always maintain its weapon advantage.

Now, the Empire’s steel warships dominated the seas, and they would soon be replaced by dreadnoughts. On land, tanks were already dominating the continents.

In the future, once they occupied the skies, the Empire would have a complete naval, land, and air force. What was there to be worried about?

Historical experience told him that what he needed to worry about was not weapons and equipment, but the Empire collapsing from within.

“I have my own judgment on this matter. It is still too early to talk about this now, as the new equipment has not yet been fully implemented.” Xiao Ming said as he stood up.

Clearing his throat, he said to Zhang Liu, “The matter of the machine tools must still be handled quickly. It’s not just for weapons. All industries in the Empire now need high-precision machine tools.”

Zhang Liu’s expression became serious. He said, “Yes, Your Majesty, your humble official will be sure to oversee it.”

Xiao Ming then said to Lin Wentao, “In addition to the steam turbine, there is also the large hydraulic forging press. This is a magical thing for processing metal, rubber, wood, and powder. With this, the forging, stamping, and powder metallurgy capabilities of steel will be greatly improved, which is very important for strengthening the strength of workpieces.”