Black Iron’s Glory

Chapter 427 Loans

The Firearms Manufacturing Workshop is located in the south-east of Port Vibato, close to the defensive front that the Kingdom of Hicks had hired the Voluntary Light Rider Corps of the Principality of Kanas to set up at the border site. This is a low-lying hilly area, with the highest hill not exceeding 200 metres above sea level. However, the area known as Black Stone Hill is home to the famous Black Stone in the direct jurisdiction of Port Vibato.

Only no one here is interested in mining black flint for fuel, because there are many bush weeds and trees in the direct jurisdiction, and there is no shortage of firewood, which can be picked up from a large bunch of dry branches as long as it takes a circle out of town. So when it burns with black smoke, the smelly black flint becomes useless. Claude remembers that in a mineral atlas seen by the Mining and Commerce Association, black flint was classified as a Class IV mineral resource with extremely low mining value.

By setting up the firearms workshop here, Master Byrd values the burning value of the black firestone, which he believes will increase as the firepower and the steam engines he manufactures develop. Because after his treatment, the black firestone burns longer, provides more heat, and using the black firestone as fuel can increase the temperature of the refinery, better fusing all kinds of metals together and refining into the special steel he needs.

General Bolognick and General Skerry, General Bitchicklin, arrived at Black Stone Hill in late September and received a message from Claude's hawk, after which they drove off the coast to Port Vibato on a light cruise ship by General Bitchicklin, then from Port Vibato to Black Stone Hill. They had no idea that Claude had set up a silent military industry in the Territory and had created a new type of rifle.

Claude and General Albert came out to greet each other and took the three generals on a tour of the entire firearms manufacturing workshop. General Bolognick and General Skerry looked at the giant steam engine with black smoke, white gas, loud noise driving up and down the piston links, driving a series of mechanical manufacturing equipment to crush various ores, refining qualified steel, and being very emotional and excited when performing all kinds of mechanical processing.

General Skerry said he had visited several large military industries in the kingdom, but did not expect that the war zone administration also finally owned a firearms manufacturing workshop, which meant that the war zone was free from the kingdom's own control over its weapons and equipment and would no longer have to beg the kingdom's own to supply weapons and equipment to the overseas territories.

General Bolognick, for his part, lamented the wonders of steam and fire engines, saying that all the firearms manufacturing workshops in the military industry in the countries of the Farea continent needed to find a place rich in water resources to start. I didn't expect Claude to embark on a new path, powered by fire and steam, to set up a military industry. It is clear that in the future, fires and steam engines will be the driving force of all mechanical production plants.

At this time, General Bolognick, General Skerry and General Bitchcline had no idea of what Claude called a new rifle, which they thought was also a fireline gun. So after visiting the quarry and the refinery, we went to lunch at Claude's invitation. And a few days earlier, General Albert had a great time playing with guns at the gun factory, laughing and not disclosing a bit of information, waiting to see the three of them look shocked when they saw the new rifle.

Three generals, who took another two hours of nap after lunch, were finally taken to the test range by Claude, where they had a long row of tables with more than a dozen new Sonia 591 rifles that had just been produced during that time. Because it was produced with a mechanical accessory, more than a dozen new rifles were not as sophisticated as the five new rifles at sister Anna Ranch, and the accessories on the body of the gun had a slight tingle feeling on the edges...

But more than a dozen new rifles have given three first-time generals a big surprise, General Bitchcline's tip, to see the copper shell next to the new rifle, and his eyes lit up: “This is the same as a revolver, a bullet in a shell shell? ”

Seeing Claude nod his head, General Beechlin grabbed a new rifle with one hand and a few bullets next to him: "Tell me, how does this gun shoot? ”

General Albert stepped forward and picked up another new rifle: "Look at me. ”

He demonstrated perfectly well how to fit the bullet into the magazine, then shove it into the lower barrel, pull the bolt, put another bullet through the opening above the gun, and then aim the shot. Although the shooting required pulling the bolt once to make the shell jump out of the inside, six shootings in a row had shocked three generals and the eyeballs were coming out.

General Bolognick and General Bitchcline then stopped after shooting with a new rifle more than fifty times in one breath, while General Skerry stopped testing the gun after shooting more than a dozen times, rubbing his shoulder and complaining: “This gun has a stronger aftershock than a fire rope gun...”

“The barrel also weighs a little heavier than a torch.” General Bolognick took a new rifle in his hand: "But compared to its convenience in loading and the speed with which it was fired, I personally think these two things are completely negligible. ”

Claude immediately reported the performance of the new rifle next to him, General Bitchcline, who looked at General Bolognick and said, "General, this is the weapon we need most, and with this new rifle, I can defend a battalion against an enemy division and even defeat it. If there is still a strong defensive position to rely on, I have great certainty that an army of enemies will not be able to move..."

General Bolognick ignored him, just loving the new rifle in his hand, and he knew perfectly well that Claude's new rifle had gone beyond the flare gun equipped in the countries of the Farea continent, not a matter of how many years ahead, but of the entire era, as stunning as he had first seen a revolver, and he only hoped that the price of such a new rifle would not be matched by a revolver.

General Skerry is not as good at weapons as General Bolognick and General Bitchklin, but as a soldier he understands the enormous role that this new type of rifle can play on the battlefield. And as the chief logistics officer in the entire theatre, he was most concerned with the question of price: “What would the price of such a new type of rifle be if it was heavily equipped with troops? ”

Claude was still considering how much price to offer, and General Albert beside him had stretched out a palm with five fingers open.

“Five gold clones?” General Bolognick was very surprised that this new type of rifle was not very expensive, perhaps updating all units under the direct jurisdiction of the theatre with weapons equipment, and those local guard regiments were also from veterans of both regiments...

“You think beautifully...” General Albert flipped his hand, and now everyone understands what he means, a new rifle costs ten gold kroner. For some reason, General Bolognick, General Bitchklin, thought it was a good price, and only General Skerry thought it was worth bargaining for.

Claude waved and stopped General Scully from asking for a reduction in the price of the equipment, and he smiled bitterly at the generals present and said, “Actually, you're in the wrong direction, and the problem with this new type of rifle is not the gun itself, but the bullet. ”

He picked up a rifle bullet: “What you don't know is that the cost of this rifle bullet is three sonars, and if it produces more than 10 million rounds, it can go down to one in two sonars, but it can't go down again. ”

General Bolognick, General Bitchicklin and General Albert don't care about the price of bullets, and General Bitchicklin says, "One bullet is only two sonars, it's cheap. ”

Claude grinned and shook his head helplessly.

But the numerically sensitive General Skerry's face suddenly turned pale: "We can't afford this new type of rifle. You don't know that an Obash 3 is worth up to four black iron pennies for gunpowder and guns fired at once. In other words, the price of 50 rounds fired by a rope gun is only as good as a copper shell rifle bullet..."

“If, according to the training outline of the Royal Army Ministry, recruits are required to conduct 1,000 live firing trainings, this would be equivalent to the cost of five gold kroner for each of them. And for the next hundred live fire drills a month, the cost of firing training is six gold kroner a year, 65,000 of us in one regiment, and the cost of light bullets is four hundred thousand gold kroner a year..." Claude replenished.

General Bolonik wipes the sweat off his forehead: “We can't afford this new rifle..."

General Bitchklin was somewhat unhappy: "General, but this new type of rifle allows us to maximize our troops with one enemy. If both of our regiments were equipped with this new type of rifle, I can assure you that no enemy would be our opponent. ”

“Perhaps we can cut the cost of training by half," General Albert thought: "The Royal Army Department requires recruits to conduct 1,000 live firing exercises because loading a fireline gun is cumbersome and the recruits must be familiarized with each step and become accustomed so that they do not panic on the battlefield and maximize their safety and order at each loading and firing.

If we had a new type of rifle, we would not have had to do a thousand live firing exercises in accordance with the training outline for a fireline gun. This new type of rifle loads quickly and conveniently, so it's easy for soldiers to grasp their shooting lead, so I don't think it's necessary for soldiers to consume that much ammunition. Recruits fire live ammunition 10 times a month, 50 rounds at a time, which reduces the cost of half of the live ammunition fired.

We can also reduce the training for live ammunition shooting every month from now on, by conducting live ammunition shooting training once every three months, 100 rounds per soldier at a time, so that they can review what they need to know to shoot. After all, unlike a new type of rifle and a rope gun, the rope gun needs to enhance the memory and habit of loading soldiers, and the new type of rifle doesn't have to be so troublesome, it just takes soldiers to get a good bullet and know how to target the shooting accurately...

If we calculate this, the cost of training that one of our regiments consumes on the bullet each year is about 150,000 gold kroner, which is a huge amount, but equipped with a new rifle to boost combat power is immeasurable, and as Bick said, one of our regiments can take ten enemies. I think it is very cost-effective and necessary in relation to the cost of our defeat and the lives of our soldiers. ”

“You're right, but Alan, our battlefield is now completely abandoned, and those more than two million immigrants from the kingdom have just settled in the Cromwell and Beringana jurisdictions, followed by the three jurisdictions of Tyrsim, Mormary and Arturas. Although more than KK 1.4 million worth of wealth has been searched from those three jurisdictions, another KK 2 million has been earned from the transfer and sale of arms from the Nikancha State.

But the rebellion and relocation of the Nikanchas, the recruitment of recruits and the integration of local guards, the expansion of Lake Lang town and the opening of an overseas civilian livelihood bank, as well as the establishment of an offshore cruise fleet and investment in public infrastructure in Cromwell, have brought the financial outlays in our theatre to a limit.

To be honest, the war zone still has a deficit of nearly one million gold kroner last year, which is all traceable. Now we can only hope that the banknote vouchers launched by the Overseas Minsheng Bank will be accepted by the residents of the kingdom, rather than resisted, otherwise our war zone finances are likely to go bankrupt.

The current situation in our theatre is very difficult, and the theatre has done its utmost to ensure the supply of military supplies to both regiments and to 18 local guard regiments. After all, we also face the threat of attacks by the Kingdom of Hicks, while losing contact with the Kingdom itself and receiving no support from the Kingdom itself. Now we have to work on our own to get through this difficult situation. ”

General Bolognick sighed deeply, showing that he was under a lot of stress, with deep wrinkles and a little whiter hair. As the acting Chief Commander of the theatre, he is responsible for all military and civilian health matters in the eight overseas territories under the overall theatre. The higher the position, the greater the responsibility, and the greater the burden.

“Claude, your new rifle is great, beyond all the fire rope guns of this era. General Bolognick said to Claude:" The war zone is now truly incapable of equipping troops with this new type of rifle, at least in the short term, at the cost of equipment for this new type of rifle and the cost of training bullets. Do you have any thoughts or requests that you can share with us? ”

Claude's smile was even more bitter, and he knew that General Bolognick was telling the truth about the war zone, but he had instructed Mrs. Sonia to manufacture this new type of rifle, and if the war zone did not make large-scale purchases, then the gun manufacturing workshop he had run would be useless and the door could not be closed.

“I hope that the war zone will guarantee me a loan of one million gold kroner from the overseas Minsheng Bank to maintain the day-to-day operation of this firearms manufacturing factory.” I invested 200,000 gold kroner in the trial production of this new type of rifle, which took years and failed countless times to produce with the help of Mrs. Sonia, "said Claude. And then I started this firearm factory with all the family money that I had to raise these machines to make these new rifles.

Now this firearms manufacturing plant is just starting to operate and is not fully loaded. In its current state of production, it produces only 3,000 new rifles and 4 million rounds of copper shell rifle ammunition a year. If I could, I'd like to use a loan to enable this firearm factory to produce 10,000 new rifles and 10 million rounds of copper-shell rifle ammunition a year. Then use these new rifles and bullets to offset the loan and slowly replace the equipment of each unit of our Thunder Corps so that there is no financial burden on the battlefield, while gradually increasing the combat power of our Corps... "

General Bolognick pondered for a moment: "Are you so confident that the overseas Minsheng Bank is going to issue a banknote voucher? If banknote vouchers cannot circulate in the direct jurisdiction, we will all be in great trouble..."

Overseas Minsheng Bank loans are provided for half of the gold and silver coins and half of the banknote vouchers.

General Bolognick's fears are not unreasonable. After nearly a millennium of using gold and silver coins, many people have little confidence in replacing silver and bronze coins below Silver Tall with lightly floating notes. In the unlikely event of a massive boycott, the theatre may persist, and Claude, who pays with banknotes, is likely to collapse soon.

“General, I have no choice now.” Claude said.