amaotonovel Chapter 85 The Army's New Rifle
Chapter 85 The Army's New Rifle
Alice was not surprised by the Army's request. She had a lot of information on rifles. Alice was originally very optimistic about the Martini-Henry rifle, but the Army's usage report was not optimistic. The reason was that although the Martini-Henry rifle had excellent performance in all aspects, its lever-loading mechanism was extremely annoying to many teams that liked to ambush.
However, it's not surprising that they were not blamed. The Martini-Henry rifle appeared during the height of the British Empire. When the rifle was in use, infantrymen would even wear red uniforms in combat. It was only after the Boer War that they switched to tan uniforms.
Now, Alice's army frequently uses ambushes in field battles, and it's common for Martini-Henry rifles to lag behind the army's tactical development.
Smedley approached Alice: "Your Highness, there is something I need to ask..."
Smedley led Alice aside, where a man in a suit, hat, and cane was already waiting.
"Ah, I know you, Ms. Le Belle!"
Le Belle owns a government-regulated arms manufacturing plant, and she herself also develops weapons. She is the same factory manager who wanted to make a magic-activated rifle before. This lady is old, and wrinkles have crept onto her face. Her husband hurried over from the side, carrying a box in his hand. Alice looked at the box, which was more than a meter long. It must contain rifles.
She roughly knew what was going on.
"Are you here to sell me a magic rifle?"
"I'm sorry, Your Highness, the magic rifle is still undergoing repeated testing. I'm here to sell you a type of bullet!"
Le Belle took a bullet out of her pocket, and Alice took it. It was a fixed metal rimless bullet that used a center firing mode.
7.62 millimeters?
Alice touched the bullet in her hand. It wasn't large in caliber, and there were caliber markings on the bottom edge. This bullet could almost be considered a modern bullet.
"You are indeed as knowledgeable as rumored. That's right, this is a small-caliber bullet. Compared to the 13mm bullets widely used by the Army and Navy, this bullet has a smaller caliber, which provides a higher initial velocity and is also easier to carry."
Alice played with the bullet, twisting it forcefully with both hands. The vampire's powerful strength separated the bullet from the casing. She poured out the propellant from the casing, which turned out to be small round pieces.
Alice reached out her hand, wanting an answer. After all, this thing wasn't easy to make; it had more or less the shadow of the Trian Fireworks behind it.
“This is not something you could do by yourself, Ms. Lebelle.”
Alice is holding smokeless gunpowder. In more technical terms, it is a type of smokeless propellant made by gelling nitrocellulose in an alcohol-ether mixture, passivating it with a small amount of paraffin, pressing the gel-like substance into thin sheets with a roller, drying it, and cutting it into blocks.
Every step here has to go through half of the country's industrial system, industrially producing nitric acid and sulfuric acid, then cotton, which has to be degreased. If it weren't for the clear steps recorded on the tablet, and the blueprints for each related industrial piece of equipment, and the systematic mind map connecting these pieces of equipment, Alice estimated that she would have to wait several more years to see the finished product.
"It seems that you are the one who created all of this; such rumors are true."
Ms. Le Belle clapped her hands, and a few more people came over. Alice looked closely and saw that they were several leaders in the chemical industry and giants in the cotton textile industry.
"I know what you mean, gentlemen. I certainly know what the invention of smokeless gunpowder means. The national economy will develop again, and hundreds of thousands of jobs will be available."
Alice suddenly trembled slightly. These leaders wanted her to further promote the modernization of the entire army's weapons and to fight with more advanced weapons, which meant more positions, more land, and greater ambitions.
This situation stems from an imbalance in weaponry; Amelia is becoming a massive war machine, and she vaguely senses it all.
Undoubtedly, her industrial departments believed that steam engines and gunpowder were no longer profitable. Technology was advancing, and things like gunpowder, Minié bullets, and steam factories should be exported. Arms was the most lucrative product. The first batch of outdated 13mm breech-loading cannons sold to Brittany earned them half a year's worth of fiscal revenue last year! And that doesn't even include the outdated artillery sold to them, which was an even bigger windfall!
Alice's "National Weapons Secrecy Law" stipulated that when the military was equipped with Minié rifles using black powder paper cartridges, these items could not be sold to foreign countries. They wanted Alice to agree to switch to smokeless powder weapons so that they could export black powder Minié cartridges to foreign countries.
Every country needs to wage war. Apart from the sirens in the sea, the humans in the south, the werewolves, pegasi, and rabbits in the east, the elves further east, and even the natives of the New World, they all fight and need weapons.
Currently, only Amerlane is capable of mass-producing black powder weapons! And weapons are the most profitable thing!
Alice had a premonition that if she didn't agree today, she would be devoured. She nodded and handed the bullet and casing to Le Belle: "Alright, I'd like to see the rifle in your hand."
The rifles that Le Bell brought were not Lebel 1886s, but four rifles: an M95 Mannlicher rifle manufactured by the Trian Armory, a Mosin-Nagant M1981 manufactured by the Magic Equipment Factory of Whiterun City in the Northern Territory, a Carcano M1891 rifle from the Hilla Light Weapons Factory, and a Mauser M1898 rifle from the Ruhr Mauser Company.
All of these rifles, without exception, featured a rotating bolt, smokeless powder, and an internal magazine. These weapons were carefully selected; in fact, the requirements for the development of the new standard rifles issued by the National Defense Committee to various manufacturers were higher than Alice's own requirements. Smedley had read all the military theories and cutting-edge weapon theories from the American Academy of Sciences. He had previously been impressed by Alice's advanced technology, and now he was an even greater advocate of advanced technology.
These rifles won him over even more than the previous ones. The only problem was their price. The cheapest Carcano rifle cost three times as much as the Navy Sharps rifle—a full three times!
No wonder these arms dealers were trying to sell me these things! Smokeless powder is advanced technology!
Alice picked up one of the rifles, gazing in awe at these intricate mechanical creations. Three years ago, she had personally crafted a flintlock rifle, and now, the power of industry had transformed the rifle in her hands into something familiar. She pulled back the bolt of the Carcano rifle. These rifles had been modified, each with a 7.62x51 caliber, which was the caliber of the third-generation rifles that Alice had been commissioned to use by the National Defense Committee.
Only the Carcano, Mosin-Nagant, and Mannlicher rifles were at a cost level acceptable to her, and in her timeline, these three rifles were used from World War I to World War II.
It has to be said that these arms dealers have thoroughly figured themselves out.