Chapter 196: Production Line

  Chapter 193 The Production Line

At the Bohemian Hordas Arsenal, engineers were conducting weapons tests. Twenty experimenters raised their guns at the same time and fired at the range in front of them.

After a burst of gunfire, the weapon designer, Holman Stellen, came up to look at it, calculated the parameters as fast as he could, and said with satisfaction, “It passes.”

The parameters were as follows:

Caliber: 12.68 mm

Weight: 4.2 kilograms

Length: 1417 millimeters

Barrel length: 920 mm

Ammunition: Acorn-shaped lead bullet in paper casing

Loading method: Rear-loading

Rate of fire: 12-15 rounds/minute

Muzzle velocity: 410 meters/second

Effective range: 650 meters

Maximum range: 1512 meters

Ammunition supply: single shot

The director of the arsenal, Hordas, came up to him smilingly and said, “Congratulations, Mr. Stellen you have designed another outstanding rifle.

This rifle is very good, it allows soldiers to load ammunition while lying down and crawling, and the accuracy of close range shooting is still above most rifles.

I’ve heard that the Prussians have switched to it on a large scale, and we’ve gotten a few of their rifles, and their performance isn’t as good as this rifle of ours.”

Holman Stellen calmly said, “Mr. Hordas, this is only a laboratory product, whether it can be mass industrially produced is still an unknown.

As a matter of fact, there have been quite a few advanced firearms made in our laboratory over the years, and because of the cost of production, there are very few of them that possess a listing value.

For example, the last 1850-series rifle was much better in all aspects, and because of the production costs, we had to bear the pain of giving it up.”

As a weapon design expert, one of the first things you learn is to give up. Weapons are not as advanced as they are, there is also the overall cost to consider.

In terms of design, it is the rifle of a hundred years later, now the same can be designed, whether it can be produced or not, is an unknown.

Holman Stellen has gotten used to, he designed more than ninety-five percent of the weapons are lying in the laboratory, this rifle, although good, can not be installed in the Austrian army is still an unknown.

Hordas optimistically said: “There is no relationship, now that the war in the Near East is being fought fiercely, we can market it to the Duchy of Montenegro for a trial, as long as this rifle is proved to be excellent in actual combat, it is impossible for the military to reject it.

Technically speaking, this rifle is much less demanding than the 1850 series, I can initially judge the production cost of this rifle, it won’t be too much higher than the current rifles.”

It couldn’t be said that His Majesty the Emperor had commanded that a breech-loading rifle suitable for use by the Austrian army be designed, could it?

Now almost every Austrian arsenal, has come up with sample rifles, and currently there are already more than a dozen models of breech-loading rifles that have appeared on the target shooting range in the Imperial Palace, and judging from experience, Hordas thinks that this rifle has a high probability of winning.

Cheap, easy to operate, and stable performance were the advantages of this rifle. The only disadvantage was the slightly lower lethality, but the accurate hit rate and the advantage of being able to get down and load could still make up for it.

Now all that’s missing is the last link to actual combat, and the Near East War is a good opportunity.

After the outbreak of the war, the Duchy of Montenegro relied on Austria’s logistical supply, and for the sake of easy supply, it had completely changed to Austrian weapons, and now it had become the experimental field of Austrian weapons.

The Austrian military also sent weapons observers to collect the actual combat parameters of various weapons, as an important reference factor for the future replacement of troops.

Holman Stellen said seriously, “Alright then, Mr. Hordas. You make the arrangements as soon as possible, this time I will personally lead a team to collect information on the battlefield.”

“No way! It’s too dangerous on the battlefield, you’re Austria’s best weapon design expert, you can’t go and take risks.” Hordas said excitedly

Holman Stellen smiled and said, “Don’t worry, the Montenegrin people will keep us safe, if you don’t feel at ease, you can still apply for the military to send someone to escort us.

Danger is only relative, if God wants to take me away, even if I stay in the country the same accident will happen.”

……

At the Mizuno Palace, the new rifles from the Hordas Arsenal had appeared on the firing range, and Franz skillfully finished loading and firing them.

Probably because of his talent, his shooting skill was really shameful. Fixed target shooting within a hundred and ten meters, to be able to not get off the target is God’s blessing.

Franz always thought that it was the rifle’s bad performance, the recoil was too strong causing the bullets to go off target. The proof of this was that the kill rate of bullets after each battle was several thousand or tens of thousands of bullets to kill an enemy.

“Bang, bang, bang ……”

After the end of the gunfire, Franz’s face immediately green, actually hit the target next door, this off-target ability is no one.

Puffing, a few little guys gloated and laughed, Franz glared over and found the culprit.

“Is that so funny, it’s just a bullet going off target, what’s so strange about that?”

Franz’s buildup had been long, the three younger brothers and two cousins all forced themselves to hold back, looking at that expression was adorable.

Suppressing the ridicule of several little ones, Franz said smilingly, “All come over and try it, pay attention to keep the distance.”

These rifles, none of them had played with them, if used as a front-bore rifle, just look at Franz’s performance just now, the bullets can be deflected by more than ten meters.

“Bang, bang, bang ……”

A series of gunshots rang out, glancing at the target from afar, Franz rubbed his eyes incredulously, are they all god snatchers?

Facts proved that he thought too much, everyone’s hit rate is not great, able to leave the bullet on the target even if it is an expert.

“Cousin Franz, you’re still the penultimate!” Princess Sissi exclaimed

Franz glared at her with a glance, he decided that he would definitely increase her etiquette lesson time when he turned around, it was just too unruly.

Is it necessary to say something so obvious? Knowing that those who participated in target shooting, the youngest was only ten years old, where does this make Franz lose face?

“Elizabeth, pay attention to the image!” Sister Princess Helen reminded

“What happened?” From the distance came the voice of Empress Dowager Sophie

Seeing Franz’s ugly face, no one answered the question. Looking at the crowd’s expressions that wanted to laugh but held it in, and scanning the targets on the field, Empress Dowager Sophie let out a giggle.

While laughing, she also pointed at Franz and said, “Not bad there is progress, Franz you finally broke the record of five rings.”

It was only at this time that the crowd realized that there was an extra bullet hole in Franz’s target. I don’t know who had just sent the bullet flying and gave it a misfire.

The crowd couldn’t hold their laughter any longer and Franz said helplessly, “Just about done, continue with the live fire training.”

Grand Duke Karl smiled and patted Franz’s shoulder and said, “See, I told you to go hunting with me, you don’t go yourself, now you know it’s embarrassing, right?

Don’t be discouraged, as long as you go out hunting with me a few more times, your marksmanship will catch up with them.”

Franz nodded cooperatively, as if to say again: his bad marksmanship was a result of too much homework and a lack of practice in general, as long as he practiced hard and diligently he would definitely be able to catch up.

Hunting, it was impossible to hunt. Franz has self-awareness, on his gun law 100 meters away, an elephant there can not hit is an unknown.

Pheasants, rabbits within the prey, he did not bother to shoot, purely a waste of bullets. Franz sort of understand, why folk a lot of shotguns are hit out a large area.

“Father, why didn’t you go out hunting today?” Franz asked suspiciously

“Seeing how lively you guys are playing, he wanted to come over to guide you in your marksmanship.” Empress Sophie jumped in and said

“Yes, your marksmanship is so bad, it’s a disgrace to the nobles, I came over to teach you how to use a gun.” Grand Duke Karl said aggressively

Franz probably guessed the reason and said decisively, “Really, that’s great. Just teach them, I have something to do first.”

After saying that, Franz turned around and left. It was as if there was something really wrong and he was in a hurry to go over and deal with it.

This was a foolproof excuse, the Vienna court had rules, no one could interfere with the emperor’s handling of official business.

Even if it was the Empress Dowager Sophie, who knew that Franz was stalling for time, she couldn’t do anything about it. Under normal circumstances, European aristocrats engaged parents’ orders are enough, Franz obviously belongs to the abnormal.

Faced with a too opinionated son, she also for felt the pressure.

Franz’s pressure is even greater, this time after the engagement war broke out, the royal family and how to live with themselves?

……

St. Petersburg.

Inside the Kurth estate, it was still chilly indoors in the middle of this summer’s August.

“Gentlemen, it can’t go on like this, the Expeditionary Forces at the front are already massively replacing their Austrian weapons, and it won’t be long before the entire Russian Army, is equipped with weapons produced by the Austrians.

What are we going to do then, shut down the arsenal? Or to compete for the narrow civilian market and sell shotguns?” An old man said with righteous indignation

Kurth, the presiding officer of the meeting, advised, “Mr. Ivanov, calm down. Things aren’t that bad, and there’s no way the government is going to watch us all go down.

This is a time of war, and everything must serve the war. The Austrians are supplying all the logistics for our frontline armies, kicking them out is impossible.

It’s only after the war is over that the time belongs to us. The government also doesn’t want to see the Austrians take control of our military production, and then our market will come back.”

Everyone was here for the benefits, and both the military and the government were very unhappy with the inferior weapons they were producing, and it was only then that the Expeditionary Force switched to Austrian weapons on a large scale.

Stupid, big and thick is the consistent characteristic of the Russian weapons, if only this shortcoming the military will tolerate, the problem is that these weapons and equipment are also often jammed, or even blow up the chamber.

If there is no choice, or everyone is the same weapon, then forget it. The problem is that now Britain, France and Austria, are more than them, and even the opposite side of the Ottomans are beginning to change the new type of weapons.

In order to win the war, in order to increase the chances of survival on the battlefield. Officers at the front strongly requested to change, they can not be suppressed by interest groups in the government, can only buy Austrian equipment to the Expeditionary Force to change.

The young man complained, “Mr. Kurth, even if the market comes back, I still have to face competition from the Austrians. The military is used to using Austrian weapons, will they still use our rags?

I’m sorry, I’m a man of dry words. Compared to our European counterparts, the weaponry we produce is indeed an era behind.

Don’t people want a change, the government can’t keep tolerating it, we’ll be eliminated sooner or later if we go on like this.”

Kurs laughed, then explained, “Little Peter you are still too young, didn’t Old Peter tell you?

On the surface, we have teamed up to monopolize the supply of weapons and equipment in the country, we must be rich.

In reality, we don’t make much money. How much does the army spend on replacing weapons and equipment every year? Less than 10 million rubles, and half of that money is taken away from us, and the rest is used to buy equipment.

The development of weapons is full of uncertainty, more than 90 percent of the weapons and equipment that come out of the market do not have combat value, and more than 95 percent of the weapons do not make money.

In this case, if we cannot maximize the maximum profit squeezed out of each weapon, how can everyone’s interests be safeguarded?

The time when everyone would have gotten rich would have been in times of war. It is very unfortunate that the biggest peach in this Russo-Turkish war has been picked by the Austrians.”

Little Peter hung his head and lowered it, not speaking. The arms market was limited and there were too many people sharing the cake.

Coupled with the fact that it was a monopoly, developing new types of weapons didn’t bring them greater profits, so naturally everyone was not active.

A middle-aged man said in a deep voice, ”Since we can’t stop the changeover, we can simply join in.

Send someone to buy production lines from the Austrians and we’ll produce them ourselves. The Expeditionary Army needs them to provide logistics, and there is no way for us to compete for that piece of the market.

But the rest of the domestic market, we must occupy. After the war is over, the domestic arms market will still be ours.”

Ivanov, who was angry earlier, said, “This is also a solution, based on past experience, this won’t end in a short period of time, we can still make up for our losses by joining in.”

Peter Jr. was much more cautious this time and asked uncertainly, “Will the Austrians sell me, knowing that this is a good time for them to make money?”

Kurs replied with certainty: “Yes, these production lines are not only produced in Austria, if they don’t sell, we can still find someone else to buy, just need to be modified.

Even we can produce them domestically, just not very well. Everyone is used to importing from abroad in order to save costs.”

(End of chapter)