Volume 1: The Rise of Elanhill Chapter 0044 Waste of Bullets
In addition to the elite teaching corps, Chris has not relaxed the development and production of weapons in the past two months.
The Maxim heavy machine gun, which uses 7.92mm caliber bullets, has been developed. The design accuracy of this weapon is actually not higher than that of the Mauser rifle, so the technical difficulty of production is not high.
The ammunition problem that Chris was worried about has also been improved as the number of bullet factories has gradually increased. Recently, the industrial production speed of Ireland Hill is at least a hundred times faster than before.
Yes, creating something from scratch is actually the most difficult process. Once more machines were built and the parts needed for the equipment began to be mass-produced, the speed of factory expansion skyrocketed.
The first lathe uses manual filing to assemble parts, which is of course slow. The second lathe can use the first lathe to process the prototype, and then simply grind and shape it by hand, which is naturally much faster.
By the time the third and fourth machines were produced, the workers had become skilled and the processing speed of the machines had doubled - so the speed at which these devices could be produced became even faster.
After more than a year of accumulation, Ireland Hill, which is already in its second year of industrialization, has reached a certain level of familiarity with machinery, so for many things, Chris just needs to take out the drawings and leave them alone.
In fact, not everything is perfect, because Ailan Hill still has not yet popularized electricity. Although the thermal power plant has been built, the electricity generated is basically provided to the factories that are constantly expanding.
Even the castle where Chris is, his base camp, still uses pitiful candles and "lanterns". Although lanterns are convenient, Chris is usually reluctant to use them because they use kerosene.
After all, even kerosene is a commodity with insufficient production. Compared with China during the Anti-Japanese War, the situation in Ailan Hill is not much better.
Although there have been tremendous advances in chemistry, many things are still stagnant because of raw materials.
In order to meet the needs of next year's farming, Chris arranged some small chemical factories in advance and asked them to start producing fertilizers. This is the basis of Chris's "national wealth". Without food, everything is just a mirage.
He followed the path of industrialization that China had taken before and built five small local enterprises, namely small fertilizer plants, small power plants and the like. He did not seek advanced technology but only to meet local needs.
With the support of these small factories, Chris has trained a large number of "capitalists". After making profits, these capitalists will work hard to learn new technologies and become staunch supporters of Chris's technological expansion.
They can learn, read and write, and have a cultural foundation. After making money, they also have the mind and desire to protect their property and status. With these people, Chris can improve the quality of the population on a large scale and have more qualified workers and technicians.
When the quality of the population is improved to a certain level, the quality of the soldiers will also improve by leaps and bounds. At that time, more troops can be expanded to sweep the world for Ireland Hill.
Chris, who originally wanted to directly mass-produce the MG42 machine gun, finally compromised with reality. The replacement of the barrel and the extremely high rate of fire made the MG42 a nightmare in terms of bullet supply.
So he could only honestly produce the Maxim heavy machine gun first and use water cooling to save more resources.
As a result, the heavy machine guns produced were also bulky weapons with wheels, which also needed to be towed by war horses and required several soldiers to serve them. They were as precious as a small cannon.
However, after seeing the power of the Maxim heavy machine gun, both Wagron and Model felt that this weapon was a good thing, and they all hoped to be equipped with more machine guns and more ammunition as soon as possible.
Using a horse to tow a heavy machine gun is not completely without advantages. One advantage is that it provides a protective shield for the heavy machine gun , which provides a higher level of safety for the shooter.
The second advantage is that this machine gun has a multi-purpose launch bracket that can immediately fire into the air. The emergence of heavy machine guns has given infantrymen a kind of anti-aircraft heavy firepower that is better than nothing.
As for how many heavy machine guns each infantry company should be equipped with, it became the fuse of the world war between the military commanders and the industrial sector.
Wagron, Modler and others naturally believed that a company should be equipped with as many heavy machine guns as possible. If possible, it would be completely fine to establish an all-heavy machine gun company.
Minister Smith, Gurlo and others complained to Chris about the problem of insufficient production capacity in the industrial sector. Chris also knew that he had just gotten rid of the crisis of insufficient bullet production capacity, and there was still a long way to go before he could squander it at will.
Therefore, after Chris's balancing, it was temporarily decided that one infantry company would be equipped with two Maxim heavy machine guns. Whether to change it in the future would depend on future conditions.
Along with the heavy machine gun, there was also a reconnaissance weapon. Chris invented the telescope a long time ago, and recently it was finally put into mass production.
The latest binoculars are very convenient and are extremely popular advanced military equipment. Because of the production factory, the troops in Ailan Hill are now equipped with them down to the company level.
In addition, some special forces are also equipped with telescopes, such as the correction fire observers of the artillery unit, the anti-aircraft artillery unit for air defense, and the heavy machine gun team.
The reason why they are all equipped with binoculars is because these troops require a very long observation distance in order to fight better.
"Bang! Bang!" On the hillside, the newly formed heavy machine gun team was training to fire their weapons. Because tracer bullets had not been developed, their trajectory corrections were completely dependent on the shooter's feeling.
Next to the machine gun, the commander knelt on the ground holding a telescope, and loudly reminded his shooter: "The target is not covered! Raise the elevation angle by one notch!"
The assistant lying next to the shooter immediately pulled out a fixed latch on the machine gun's sight. The shooter pressed down the gun slightly to raise the muzzle a little higher. Then the assistant inserted the latch back into the fixed point on the sight.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!" The second round of shooting began immediately after the adjustment. Another row of bullets flew towards the target and landed in the distant target area.
The commander holding the telescope cheered loudly because he saw through the telescope that a target area a thousand meters away was filled with white smoke due to bullets.
"Hit the target! Great shot!" He cheered loudly and encouraged his comrades: "Prepare to move! Go to the next launch position!"
The two soldiers who had been lying at the back immediately stood up. One of them led the warhorse while the other stepped forward to help pull the two heavy wooden wheels of the heavy machine gun out of the fixed pit.
Including the ammunition, special bracket, wheels, and shield, the machine gun itself, and the water in the water pipe on the barrel... this Maxim machine gun is not light, and it takes the efforts of many people to move the position.
The four men hurriedly hung the machine gun on the back of the warhorse, and the horseman urged the warhorse to drive towards the next firing position. According to regulations, these soldiers should be equipped with revolvers for self-defense, but now there are only empty pistol holsters on their waist belts.
All weapons have to be produced bit by bit and equipped to the troops bit by bit: Haven’t you seen that many second-line troops are still using wooden weighted models for training machine gun teams?
"This machine gun team is not bad." Chris looked at the machine gun team rushing to the next firing position and said to the officer behind him with satisfaction: "How many teams like this do we have now?"
"Almost, there are 17 of them. They are all seeds of the teaching regiment and will be responsible for training more machine gun teams in the future." The officer looked at the form in his hand and answered.
"Very good! Not bad!" Chris was in a very good mood
He even had the idea of improving himself: "Let's go! To the pistol range! I want to practice shooting a few rounds."
There is no man who doesn't like games like target shooting and archery. It is men's instinctive desire, just like they like the mechanical roar of cars, the devastating power of cannons, and the charm and beauty of women.
Chris was naturally no exception. He had experimented with cannons and shot a 30mm anti-aircraft gun with his own hands. Now he had the opportunity to go to the shooting range often to shoot a few shots for his own pleasure.
Standing in the shooting area, Chris pulled out the pistol from his waist and aimed at the target in the distance. His pistol contained six standard 9mm caliber bullets, which could accurately hit the target at a distance of about 30 meters.
He closed one eye, looked through the sight, and saw the target in the distance. Using the standard pistol stance, he pulled the trigger hard, and the Colt pistol in his hand immediately responded to his action: "Bang!"
Seven rings, six rings, seven rings... Chris's shooting skill was not actually very accurate, he just liked to vent the pleasure of pouring ammunition into the target, so he shot very quickly and soon used up all six bullets.
Without even looking at his results, Chris lowered his head and began to load his pistol, looking very professional.
Not far away, Wagron, who was also here for target practice, smiled wickedly and asked the officer in charge of the shooting range who came to greet him, "Your Majesty is here again?"
"That's right... Here to waste bullets again..." The officer at the shooting range also had a sly smile on his face, as if he was used to hearing his Majesty slandering him behind his back: "He comes here every day..."
