Volume 1 Wuchang Vortex Chapter 35 Private Manufacturing
Yang Qiu hit himself on the head, it was all because of the erotic novels. What about the streets being full of Maxims and Madsen M50s during the Xinhai period? How could that actually happen!
After the Russo-Japanese War, the Qing government saw the power of machine guns and indeed began to purchase machine guns for the Beiyang Army and other new armies. However, at the end of August, in order to carry out this year's Yongping Autumn Exercise, because the purchased machine guns did not arrive in time, the Qing government borrowed machine guns from various local armies in such large quantities that almost all the machine guns in the country were withdrawn.
Originally, the Hubei New Army had never been equipped with Maxim rifles, and now even the few Hotchkiss rifles had been taken away. Except for a few Hotchkiss rifles in the hands of the Governor-General's Office and Zhang Biao, there were almost no machine guns in the entire army. During the Battle of Yangxia, the militia used the "six-barreled magic machine gun" to deal with the Beiyang New Army that was armed to the teeth.
The same goes for the Madsen M50. Although the Guangzhou Manufacturing Bureau started to imitate it in 1908, the scale, output and technical level of the Guangzhou Manufacturing Bureau were not even comparable to that of the Hanyang. They could only produce 2 to 3 guns per month, and it is estimated that they could not even produce the 100 guns they purchased at one time.
It's completely false that anyone in the movies can operate a machine gun smoothly. Madsen is still okay, but the Maxim machine gunner is definitely a technical job with very high requirements. Without professional training, you can't even load bullets.
20 Maxim heavy machine guns, 100 Madsen M50 light machine guns, and 300,000 rounds of ammunition, if sold to Yuan Shikai, it would definitely not be less than 300,000 yuan. Is it going to be wasted? Yang Qiu gritted his teeth. If there was really no other way, he could only wait until the uprising started to select soldiers for assault training.
According to later records, the Battle of Yangxia lasted for more than 40 days, plus there was a six-seven-day buffer after the Wuchang Uprising. If we had intensive training, we should have been able to train a few of them, right?
After the conversation, Lei Meng, who was competing in strength with several baggage soldiers, immediately jumped up like a rabbit. This tough guy was now completely obedient to Yang Qiu. However, Yang Qiu did not dare to tell him and Yue Peng and others about the important things in his heart for the time being. After all, it was only half a month, and he had not experienced the life and death experience like Xiao Anguo and Ma Kui.
A moment later, Bingwen also ran over. As Yang Qiu had already encountered an assassination attempt, even Li Yuanhong told him to bring a few soldiers with him wherever he went. Seeing that the two were still carrying rifles, which was not convenient at all, Yang Qiu smiled and said, "Let's go to the gun factory and see if we can get you some pistols."
"real!"
Lei Meng jumped up at once. When Yang Qiu introduced two semi-automatic pistols to Su Hongsheng that day, his eyes turned red, and he wanted to grab one and leave. Unfortunately, Yang Qiu didn't keep the pistol, and the gun factory couldn't make it. Although according to regulations, he could be issued a revolver as a horseman, but after seeing Browning and Automatic, who would want to use a revolver? So every day he rushed to Yang Qiu's gun cleaning job to satisfy his desire.
"Sir, I..." Bingwen was also very happy, but he felt a little uncomfortable because he had not told him that someone was trying to assassinate Yang Qiu. However, just as he opened his mouth, Yang Qiu stopped him and asked quietly, "Can you tell me what happened that day?"
Bingwen thought about it and explained the whole story.
It turned out that when he went to Hankou last time, he accidentally heard Jin Laili's men say that they wanted to kill Yang Qiu, so he rushed to protect Xiao Anguo and Yang Qiu, but he didn't expect to be seen by Jin Laili. Later, when he went out again, he sent a dozen Hankou thugs to block him.
He originally wanted to tell Yang Qiu, but he felt that Yang Qiu was becoming less and less like the big brother who talked about revolution all the time. He felt hesitant and didn't say it out loud. Unexpectedly, something went wrong when he went to the Governor's Mansion for a banquet that night, so he always felt very sorry for him.
"So, when I saw you in the schoolyard that morning, you had just been chased by those hooligans?"
Seeing Bingwen nodded, Yang Qiu's eyes turned cold. He hugged the baby-faced man's shoulders and said, "Bingwen, believe me, I will never be a running dog of the Manchus. Many things like today were caused by a combination of mistakes. As for what I am going to do, you will know soon."
"Don't worry, Brother Yang. Brother Xiao has already told me your thoughts." Bingwen told him about Xiao Anguo's visit. Yang Qiu didn't expect Xiao Anguo, who looked dark, thin and dry like an old farmer, to defend him so much. He turned his head and looked at the barracks behind him. He felt a warm current in his heart and smiled, "Bingwen, do you want a Browning or a Mauser?"
"Sir, I'm not picky, Mauser is fine ." Before Bingwen could say anything, Lei Meng next to him jumped up rudely.
Yang Qiu immediately laughed and scolded: "Idiot!"
"Idiot?" Lei Meng quickly pulled Bingwen and asked, "Bingwen, why did the adults call me an idiot?" After spending a few days together, Bingwen gradually became familiar with this big man and said with a smile, "If you had seen the power of the two guns of the adults, I'm afraid you wouldn't choose the Mauser."
Seeing Babyface's face full of admiration and envy when he spoke, Lei Meng understood. Look at him? No wonder Babyface can be a groom even though he is so white! His flattery skills are really not up to par! He immediately chased after him and shouted, "Sir, I think it's clear. Browning is still the best..."
"Have you really thought it through?"
"Think about it. As a horseman, I must always be consistent with the adults."
“…”
…
In front of the machine tool, a gun barrel is slowly turning with the gears, and the combined circular knife in the center of the barrel is carving precise rifling. This is an extremely delicate job and also the most demanding of skills, so it must be operated by the most experienced masters.
But today, Su Hongsheng stood in front of the machine tool without any interest. He even answered questions from his apprentices perfunctorily. All he could think about were the two semi-automatic pistols. It's not like he hasn't seen semi-automatic weapons before. There are still a few light machine guns that were imitated when the factory went to Guangzhou for support. But machine guns are different from pistols. It is rare to see such exquisite workmanship in the factory.
He couldn't let it go, so he simply walked out of the factory and came to his small office, took out a piece of paper and started writing and drawing on it. After a while, the approximate appearance and structure of the two guns seen that day came out, but after all, these were not precise design drawings, so it was still unclear.
"Hey, if I had stayed back then... then..." Su Hongsheng thought of what Yang Qiu said when he left that day, and remembered that the skills he had always been proud of were actually just following others' buttocks. He couldn't help but sigh: "Twenty years, my hair has turned white."
"If there is another twenty years, what will Su Lao do?"
Just as Su Hongsheng crumpled the drawing paper in his hand, he heard a voice suddenly. He looked up and saw that his son and Yang Qiu had arrived at the door. His eyes lit up and he saluted quickly, saying, "I didn't know that the commander-in-chief was here. I'm sorry for not coming so far..."
"Mr. Su is so polite that I was scared and didn't dare to come in." Yang Qiu laughed and walked into the house.
"Little bastard, why didn't you come and report first?" Su Hongsheng cursed, glared at Su Xiaohu and asked him to fetch his treasured Longjing tea . He glanced at Yang Qiu's pistol and asked, "Sir, are you here to get the bullets?"
Seeing Yang Qiu nod with a smile, Su Hongsheng's smile froze immediately. He walked to the back and took out a small cloth bag from the cabinet: "Browning and Mauser 500 each, please count, sir."
Yang Qiu knew that the Qing government had strict control over bullets. Gun factories had strict registration from cutting to finished products. Even ordinary soldiers usually had no bullets in their guns. They were only issued before carrying out missions. So he asked, "Mr. Su, I'm new here and don't know the rules. Do I need to register?"
"Don't worry, sir. I have already registered it for you at the Imperial Household Department. You can use it without any worries."
"That's good." Yang Qiu took the bullet, suddenly walked to the table and unfolded the drawing paper that Su Hongsheng had crumpled into a ball, and said with a smile: "I didn't expect that Mr. Su had such a good memory, not bad, not bad."
"You're old. You haven't made any progress in the past 20 years." Su Hongsheng thought Yang Qiu was laughing at him, and angrily pointed at Su Xiaohu who had just come in and said, "If it weren't for this evil son, I would have wanted to go back to my hometown to enjoy a peaceful life."
Su Xiaohu's neck shrank, knowing that the old man was in a bad mood these days, so he dared not talk back. He immediately put down his tea and ran to the yard to brag with Lei Meng and Bingwen. Seeing this, Yang Qiu laughed and said, "Haha... I didn't expect that Old Su was still angry about my nonsense. Yang Qiu deserves to die."
"Bingwen."
Without waiting for Su Hongsheng to speak, he waved to Bingwen who was waiting outside. Bingwen immediately brought in the bag that he had asked him to pick up when he passed by the military camp. After taking the bag, Yang Qiu did not open it, but asked first: "Mr. Su, if I want to order a few pistols, what procedures do I need to go through?"
When Su Hongsheng saw the bag, he had already guessed something and excitedly told him the procedures to be done.
The gun factory has its own rules, especially since the revolutionaries have been everywhere recently, so the management of guns is very strict. Although Yang Qiu is already a standard commander, he still needs to go through various levels of registration and report to the governor's office for record. Hearing that the procedures are so complicated, Yang Qiu frowned, glanced at Su Hongsheng and said, "Mr. Su should have heard about my story. If it weren't for these guns, I'm afraid..."
The news of Yang Qiu being assassinated in the street had already spread throughout the three towns. Su Hongsheng thought that he was afraid of exposing the details of his gun. Seeing that he was reluctant to open the bag, he became anxious because he was obsessed with guns all his life. Knowing that Yang Qiu had just taken office and was not familiar with the rules, he thought about it and lowered his voice and said quickly: "To be honest, sir, if you trust me, you can make it privately."
"Privately made?"
Su Hongsheng quickly closed the door and began to explain.
It turned out that since the gun factory started operation, officials and military officers of the imperial court often came to order firearms. Most of these firearms were not registered, and over time, the rules of private manufacturing were formed. Private manufacturing does not mean finding a small workshop to make them privately. It is also an aboveboard way. However, the number of private manufacturing cannot be too large, at most 10 or 20 guns. Secondly, it costs more because it needs to take care of the managers at all levels. Thirdly, if long guns are not made, they will not be equipped with bullets. In addition, special marks will be left on each gun so that in case of trouble, it can be found out who made the gun.
Yang Qiu didn't expect that there were so many rules here. No wonder there were so many guns in the Republic of China period, and there were many independent gunsmiths in the later period. Now it seems that the source probably started from this kind of private manufacturing.
It would be a matter for the future if he wanted to sort it out. Right now, it was quite convenient to make it privately, so Yang Qiu opened his bag and took out thick stack of blueprints: "The detailed blueprints of the two pistols are here. How about making as many as Mr. Su can within half a month?"
Excitedly, Su Hongsheng quickly took the blueprint and spread it on the table without caring that Yang Qiu was still beside him. Although there were only two types of pistols, the blueprint was extremely detailed. It took Yang Qiu three nights to copy it. When he thought of this, his mouth turned bitter. Guns were so troublesome, and the big guy in the data machine... It would probably drive him crazy! Is he going to stay in the house and trace blueprints every day for the rest of his life?
Su Hongsheng didn't notice that these drawings seemed too thick for a simple pistol. He just had his eyes shining, especially when he saw that the sizes and models of various accessories on the drawings were indicated, and even the material requirements were written next to them. There was no need to conduct physical surveying at all. He could definitely make several pistols within ten days, so he rubbed his hands excitedly and wished he could sleep in the factory with the drawings in his arms.
Yang Qiu did not disturb Su Hongsheng, whose eyes were shining. Seeing him lying on the table with his glasses on, his fingers moving along the drawings, the corners of his mouth slowly curled up, especially when he saw his fingers were about to turn to the last few pages, he narrowed his eyes.
Su Hongsheng was so focused that he didn't notice anything unusual happening next to him and subconsciously turned the pages one by one. But when he finished reading the design drawing of the Mauser automatic and turned to the next page, his eyes suddenly froze and he quickly glanced through the next few pages.
The blueprint was no longer a pistol, but a light machine gun that looked very familiar to him. He asked hurriedly, "Isn't this the light machine gun (the domestic Madsen M50) made in Guangdong? How did you get the blueprint, sir?"
Madsen M50? Why would you want to make such a complicated gun? And it is extremely troublesome to replace the barrel. I bought it as an emergency measure because I have no other choice! So Yang Qiu immediately laughed and said, "Mr. Su, take a closer look."
The bipod, the magazine inserted high on it, and the deconstruction of the bolt looked very familiar, but... Su Hongsheng's fingers moved across the drawing bit by bit, and soon he saw the difference in appearance. Yang Qiu was happy in his heart, but scratched his head secretly. If it weren't for the poor technical conditions of Hanyang, the inadequate stamping technology, and the materials... especially the barrel that couldn't withstand too high a frequency of firing, he could have directly used the simple and easy-to-make MG42. Even if he had 20 or 30 of them, he wouldn't have to worry about the Beiyang. Unfortunately...
"Oh, look at my memory. I took the wrong one." Seeing that Su Hongsheng was almost done, Yang Qiu pretended to slap his forehead and was about to put away these unknown Czech-made ZB-26 light machine gun design drawings. But Su Hongsheng had already been attracted by them, so how could he let him take them away so easily? He quickly held them down and said, "This is not the Guangdong light machine gun. It looks a bit similar, but it has fewer parts..."
"Haha... I usually designed it for fun. I felt that the light machine gun had many shortcomings. There were 127 large and small parts, and the barrel would get hot after firing for a while and had to rest. So I wanted to make a machine gun that was easier to make and easier to change the barrel. I didn't expect it to be stuck here." Yang Qiu deliberately laughed and pretended to put away the drawings of the ZB-26 light machine gun. Now Su Hongsheng was anxious. It was simpler than the light machine gun, and the barrel could be quickly changed on the battlefield, which could achieve continuous firepower! My God, this thing is simply a magical weapon!
"Did you...design this?" Su Hongsheng's eyes widened.
"Haha... just for fun." Yang Qiu immediately put away the blueprint and deliberately laughed, "I haven't seen a light machine gun yet, so I'm just playing around. Besides, Hanyang has never built a light machine gun, so you can't build one even if I give it to you."
"Make it, we can make it! I still have a few good light machine guns that we imitated from Hanyang! Not to mention this little lump, we have even surveyed the Maxim!" What a joke! Seeing that Yang Qiu was rolled up, Su Hongsheng was really anxious! Although he had been following others in the first half of his life, it did not mean that he had no vision. This drawing was basically designed, and according to many years of experience, it would definitely work if it was made! No, we must study it!
"What did you say? You have built a light machine gun? And you have also surveyed the Maxim?!" Hearing this, Yang Qiu's heart beat faster. If Su Hongsheng was not lying, this meant...
Seeing that Yang Qiu didn't believe him, Su Hongsheng hurriedly explained. It turned out that Guangzhou encountered technical difficulties when imitating the light machine gun. In the end, he led a dozen old Hanyang technicians to help solve the problem. He secretly drew the blueprints when imitating it, and after returning, he imitated and made several of them by himself. He also wrote to the court to ask Hanyang to join in the imitation. However, the price of light machine guns was too expensive, each one costing almost 600 taels of silver. In addition, Hanyang was fully engaged in the 57mm mountain cannon and the Hanyang-made modification work was rejected. Later, due to negligence in management, several machine guns were rusted and broken due to being soaked in floods for a long time. This matter has been a concern for him for many years.
As for the Maxim, he did survey it. During the Russo-Japanese War, the Beiyang Navy got a damaged Maxim from somewhere, so they summoned the best workers in the country to survey it. Unfortunately, the Maxim was too complicated and difficult to manufacture, and the machine gun was damaged, so they did not continue to work on it but bought it directly from Germany.
Seeing that Yang Qiu was about to put away the blueprint, Su Hongsheng felt as if he was being scratched by seven or eight cats. He quickly stopped him and said, "Sir, how about...let me take another look?"
"Let's see?" Yang Qiu's eyes twitched involuntarily, and he said with a smile: "Even if I ask you to make a light machine gun, two or three per month... At this speed, I think it's better for me to sell it to foreigners for money!"
"What do you mean two or three times a month!" Thinking that he didn't believe in his own skills, Su Hongsheng jumped up as if his tail was stepped on: "Sir, although you look down on Hanyang, no matter what, Hanyang is the priority for the army's weapons! Even Jiangnan dare not say that it is better than me! As for Guangdong? Humph! I am ten times better than it!"
What Su Hongsheng said was true. In the late Qing Dynasty, Hanyang for the Army and Jiangnan for the Navy were very famous. If the factory had not been closed due to poor management, the 75mm Krupp barrel recoil gun would not have been produced by Hanyang. Therefore, the equipment and technology here were better than other manufacturing bureaus in the country. The decline of Hanyang in the early Republic of China was largely due to the destruction of the Yangxia War. In addition, Yuan Shikai later moved away nearly half of the machines and took away the old technical workers, and gradually lost the top position in the army's ordnance manufacturing.
"But didn't you say that private makers don't make spears?"
"This... I don't know about it, absolutely not. I just want to take a look." Su Hongsheng's old face turned red and he said quickly.
"Old Su, I'm not bragging. This gun may seem easier to make than a light machine gun, but it's actually not simple at all, and it requires very high technical skills. I'm afraid..." Before Yang Qiu finished speaking, Su Hongsheng patted his chest and said, "Don't worry, Commander Biao. If I say I can make it, I will definitely make it. At most, it will be slow at the beginning. But... I'm just researching it. This gun cannot be made without the imperial court's order!"
Su Hongsheng paused deliberately. Yang Qiu heard the off-screen voice and pretended to be worried: "Mr. Su, it's not that I don't trust you. This thing is my treasure. You are an expert in guns. You should know how big a fuss it would cause if this gun... was lost."
"Don't worry, sir. I guarantee with my life that the blueprint will never be seen by anyone else ." Su Hongsheng swore an oath. Seeing that Yang Qiu still didn't believe him, he pointed at Su Xiaohu outside through the glass and said excitedly: "Sir, what do you think of Xiaohu? This kid is naturally brave and has studied at the Wugao School. If I hadn't had only one son and didn't let him continue to serve in the army, I'm afraid he would have become a captain long ago! You can take him back and train him for a few days. It will also be a help to me."
This time it was Yang Qiu's turn to be dumbfounded. He had seen people obsessed, but he had never seen someone so obsessed that he would take the initiative to "mortgage" his son. What kind of thing was this! He waved his hand quickly and said, "What do you think of me, Mr. Su? It's just a blueprint. I'll leave it here for half a month, and then have Xiaohu return it to me after half a month. What do you think? But let me make it clear! First, you can't make a copy! Second, you can't forge it. If something goes wrong, my head..."
"No, absolutely not!" Su Hongsheng's eyes narrowed with smiles. He quickly snatched the blueprints and carefully put them in his arms, saying with a smile, "In half a month, I will personally deliver these blueprints and a pistol to you at the camp."
Seeing that Su Hongsheng was satisfied, Yang Qiu raised his eyebrow slightly and said, "Mr. Su, I want to borrow two light machine guns. What procedures do I need to go through?"
"That's easy, as long as you...wait, you want to borrow a machine gun?!"
