On May 22, 1910, the United States finally approved the Rubber Purchase Restriction Act, which stipulates that foreign rubber purchases are restricted within three years. A few days later, the British Parliament also approved a similar act because it was rumored that the world's second largest rubber importer was France will also issue such a law, and the rubber price in the international market finally fell rapidly. At this time, China's national capitalists, investment merchants, and petty citizens became the last sweepers, and were still buying rubber stocks and rubber in a crazily manner. Transaction credentials, even large-scale mutual lending and buying.

This was the last crazy feast of the Qing Empire and the last financial crisis during the Qing government.

During this period of time, the Restoration Association, which had been lurking in China for five years, also began to move wildly. The Restoration Association in Fujian and the Han Association first revolted in Fuqing County. Some counties in other provinces also echoed it, but these All of them are small moves, just to build momentum for the future, and to truly open up a big discussion on the dispute between Manchu and Han in various media.

...

On this day in mid-June, Song Biao went to the Far East Arsenal to inspect. With the rapid development of the Shenyang New District and considering confidentiality, the Far East Arsenal moved back to the Changling area surrounded by mountains on three sides in April 1908, and was renamed the Chenyang Arsenal. Set up branches in many places.

The investment scale of the new Chenyang Arsenal is very large, with a cumulative investment of 5.5 million pounds so far, lower than the Benxi Arsenal jointly operated by Far East Weapons Company and German DWM Company, and slightly higher than the Liaoyang Arsenal jointly owned by Far East Weapons Company and Russia.

In the United States, Song Biao and Conns Vanderbilt jointly purchased Winchester and several arms companies in the New Haven area, and formed a new Winchester Weapons Company. So far, he also made the Far East The arsenal found new technical support, and before that, the main technical support of the arsenal in the Far East came from Russia and France.

Sch Enfu, who graduated from Fuzhou Naval Academy and studied industrial machinery in France, was invited to serve as the factory director at the Far East Arsenal, and Thomas Johnson Crossley, a designer of Winchester, served as the new designer at the factory, in the past During the two years, Thomas Crossley redesigned the m1907 Winchester semi-automatic rifle in accordance with some of Song Biao's requirements and suggestions, and changed it to the new m1910 Winchester rifle.

Song Biao arrived in the factory very early, and the workers just started working. Many of the workers who worked here retired from the army, mainly because they were old and failed to pass the assessment and were promoted to non-commissioned officers.

Although it is already a private factory, the benefits of the factory are still better than other companies, because this is a very special military factory after all. The biggest advantage of setting up a factory in Changling is that the surrounding land prices are very low. In addition to the production area, the surrounding area is We can continue to maintain enough land to build a weapon test site, but only transfer the original infantry training camp to the more remote Yanming Lake area.

Accompanied by Shi Enfu, Song Biao inspected the factory and felt that it was pretty good. The workers were treated very well. Like the state-owned factories in the 1970s, they took care of almost everything.

There are currently more than 20 companies engaged in the production of weapons and gunpowder in Northeast China, the largest of which are Benxi, Chenyang, Liaoyang and Fushun.

Benxi Arsenal mainly comes from German technology, funds and personnel. Far East Weapons Company only accounts for 35% of its shares, with a total investment of 13 million pounds, gunpowder, **, bullets, shells, Mauser rifles, mausoleum guns, Maderson machine guns, artillery guns, All are produced; the Liaoyang Arsenal is a joint venture with Far East Weapons Company and the Russian state-owned arsenal each occupying 50% of the shares. It produces the Mosinnagan series of rifles, ammunition, Maxim machine guns and artillery.

Unlike the two arsenals in the preceding, the Chenyang arsenal does not involve artillery production, but focuses on the production of rifles and mortars, while the Fushun arsenal concentrates on the production of gunpowder and various ammunition.

Chenyang Arsenal currently mainly produces m1891m1910 Mosin Nagan rifle, Winchester m1897 shotgun, 77mm mortar, 60mm mortar, and 105mm mortar.

The m1910 Mosinnagan rifle is a new type of rifle produced in cooperation with Russia, but Russia has no intention of installing this type of rifle because the 7.62*54cr rifle ammunition used in this type of rifle will cause a lot of trouble to the Russian army.

Until this time, Song Biao did not actually consider which rifle to continue to develop, as the official installation rifle of the Northeast New Army and the future Imperial Wehrmacht.

This is a very complicated question. It is better to choose which kind of rifle to choose which kind of bullet.

At this time, the Northeast New Army, Patrol Army, and militia used three different bullets, namely the 7.62mmr edge bottom fire rifle bullet, the 7.62mmcr center bottom fire rifle bullet, and the 7.92mm Mauser rifle bullet. All three were pointed The latter two are Bodan-style central base fire.

The problem now is that both the R-type bomb and the Mauser bomb have ready-made systems, but neither is what Song Biao wants, and the CR-type bomb still lacks a system. If the development of its own system will continue, the efforts to make it work will also be It's very many.

Walking around the factory and listening to various introductions from Sch Enfu and Thomas Crossley, Song Biao was actually thinking about which bullets and rifles the Imperial Royal Army Defense Force would use after the Imperial Empire was built.

There is no doubt that the Imperial Royal Army will be replaced with semi-automatic rifles very early. These rifles are only a transitional stage. The Winchester M1910 semi-automatic rifle is just a special transition period. What really determines all this should be the choice. Which kind of bullet?

Shi Enfu found a newly produced m1910 Mosin Nagan rifle and asked Song Biao to operate it. As a soldier, he always loves this manual rifle the most. Every step is full of soldiers' uniqueness. temperament.

The Mosinnagan rifle has been improving since its birth. The M1910 Mosinnagan rifle and the Tsarist Russian series have undergone great changes. The buttstock and wood are still selected as birch. After the bullets on the bottom edge have turned into the central base fire. The rifle's chamber processing must be more stringent, and the new downward-bending pull handle is used. The operation is more flexible and it is helpful for improving the rate of fire. The bolt, safety and magazine have certain requirements. Improved, the new magazine can hold 8 rounds of ammunition, and the bayonet uses a triangular bayonet, but is still removable.

Song Biao chose the triangular bayonet not because the bayonet has strong lethality. It is because after the barrel is shortened by 10 cm, the bayonet must be extended by 7 cm to reduce the length problem when bayonet is being matched. This is very long The bayonet requires higher mechanical hardness. Although Far East Steel transfers Bethlehem's technology to produce nickel alloy steel, considering the cost issue, it finally adopted a new triangular bayonet solution.

This reason is exactly the same as the Republic's early choice of this plan. It is by no means for the so-called lethality. The Soviet Union's bayonet was a cone-shaped bayonet, which was very beautiful and had good lethality, but it was easy to bend. Even the Soviet Union was like this, we imitated it. It was very miserable, so I had to thicken it, and finally it became the prototype of the triangular bayonet.

In general, blade-shaped bayonets are the general trend.

The new magazine of this type of rifle can hold 8 rounds of ammunition. With the addition of the ammunition chamber, it can be loaded up to 9 rounds of ammunition, but in actual use, the structure of the bolt can only be loaded with four rounds per time, except that In addition to the 8-round magazine, there are also 12 rounds, 16 rounds, and 20 round magazines.

Due to the improvement of the bolt, there have also been improvements in the mechanical parts of the firearms, and the modification of the insurance mechanism is more suitable for the bolt.

There are many differences between the m1910 Mosinnagan rifle and the Tsarist Russian Mosinnagan rifle. The relationship between the two is similar to the Springfield rifle and the Mauser rifle. The official name is the m1910 Shenyang rifle, which is also the first design of the Shenyang Arsenal. Modern domestic rifle.

It should be said that the Shenyang rifle still satisfies Song Biao. In terms of production accuracy requirements, except for the improvement of the machining accuracy requirements of the gun chamber compared to before, the other machining accuracy requirements have not changed much, and it is still a mass-produced model. The rifle has been greatly improved in design, which is safer and more flexible. It is also easier for new recruits to accept during the adaptation process. With the premise that the accuracy remains unchanged, the firing rate has been increased from the original 12 rounds per minute to 15. It has a special new design, and has a dust cover, suitable for use in the north.

In terms of accuracy alone, the Mosinnagan rifle is slightly better than the Mauser Gew rifle at a distance of 300 meters.

The only problem now is that Song Biao did not make up his mind to replace this new type of rifle in the entire army. After operating it, Song Biao was very satisfied with returning the rifle to the worker responsible for proofreading, and continued to ask Shi Enfu to take him to the mortar. Factory inspection.

Chenyang Arsenal is currently the most experienced mortar manufacturer in the world with production and design experience. In order to maintain this advantage, the factory specially hired four mechanics from Sweden and Belgium, plus the domestic designers of our factory. , formed two teams to engage in the design and testing of mortars separately.

Compared with the mortars that Germany is designing, the mortars at the Chenyang Arsenal are more unique. A buffer is installed on the gun stand, a gear box is installed on the gun body, and a seat plate at the bottom, in addition to the sighting equipment. In addition to the difference between gear design, this is no longer different from modern mortars.

Chenyang Arsenal now produces three models of mortars, 6077105, and is designing 80120mm mortars. Due to buffer problems, gunpowder and barrel stiffness issues, coupled with the limitations of weight and shells, the range of the 120mm mortars It's a bit tragic, so I'm unable to serve for a long time.

Compared with Russia's current 60mm caliber mortar, the 34-year 60mm mortar at the Chenyang Arsenal has a longer range and higher accuracy. The 77mm mortar is produced by the Chenyang Arsenal and Russia, and will be gradually new. Designed 80mm mortar replaced.

Song Biao looked around the factory and design room. Some things must be included, and the actual meaning will not be very important after installation. The 120mm mortar is a typical example. The weight of at least 300 kilograms is less than 2,500 kilograms. A 100-meter range is a big tragedy, and it is better to use a light mountain cannon directly.

It is always a good thing to find a way to break through this technology, so the development work that should be carried out will continue to invest and promote it. The real service and the greatest effect are undoubtedly only 13.5 kilograms, but the range can reach 140 meters. Of course, the ammunition weight of the two is 7.5 times different, and the power is very different. When encountering a high-protected bunker, the 60mm mortar cannot be used, and the 77105 mortar may not be able to operate. That's why I need a 120mm mortar. If I really want to make this thing, even if it's only a range of two thousand meters, it can greatly reduce unnecessary casualties and rush over to the ** bag without sacrificing human lives.

After inspecting the entire Chenyang Arsenal, Song Biao went to Thomas Crossley's design room and looked at several gun design drawings that were still in its infancy here.

It is always a pity that John Moses Browning was not able to invite Far East Weapons Company. Italian-American designer Thomas Crossley is basically enough. In addition to Thomas, the Shenyang Arsenal is in China. Designers recruited from abroad and young mechanics trained by themselves in China have formed five design rooms together, including two mortars and three firearms.

Thomas Crossley has his own design room and is obliged to help the other two design rooms. So he can see the most drawings in his design room.

With the gradual accumulation over the years, Song Biao has begun to step by step accelerate the development of modern weapons in China, and the solution directly responsible for Thomas Crossley is a new semi-automatic rifle.

Before this, Song Biao gave Thomas Crossley a draft, representing some of his ideas and requirements.

Now Thomas Crossley has implemented these drafts as more detailed and standard parts design drawings and mechanical construction drawings, and has simply created a sample gun in the workshop, although this new rifle still has many Problem. It cannot be used for practical shooting tests, but at least it can check some structures in mechanical design and the cooperation problems between various parts.

It was almost noon, and several assistants left in this bright and spacious design room. Various drawings and parts and mechanisms were scattered on the surrounding desks, while Song Biao sat in the large window near the window Looking at the latest drawings by the desk, Thomas Crossley sat next to him with some special excitement, smoking a cigar.

Although he worked in a foreign country, for Thomas Crossley, he followed his parents to the United States in a child just for money and livelihood. Now he can earn more rewards and better treatment, so he can do it too Like those big designers, they enjoy the best office environment and smoke Cuban cigars.

His monthly salary is four times that of his previous Americans, and he has a richer patent sharing contract.

So in the past two years, he has been working very hard to help the other two design rooms solve more problems, and his new rifle development work has also actively moved forward.

Song Biao sat quietly in the sunlight looking at the drawings, and compared the new rifle placed on the table.

He provided Thomas with a short-stroke air conduction method for pistons, and at the same time required a rotating rear pull locking bolt structure. However, unlike the SKS semi-automatic rifle, this semi-automatic rifle requires higher accuracy, because it adopts a central base fire Bordin type Ammunition, the new type of rifle bullet changes low in the bullet diameter, so when the magazine is very long, its bending radius is much smaller.

In terms of specific requirements, the accuracy, range and power requirements of the gun cannot be lower than the current large-scale installation of m18911910 Mosinnagan rifle. The standard magazine capacity of the rifle is 10 rounds, and it is required to be filled by bridge clamp at one time and absorbed by the bridge clamp. The characteristics of Mauser Zeiss precision rifle are synchronously designed with a new sniper rifle.

The bayonet will no longer adopt triangular bayonets, because during the semi-automatic rifle period, the probability of bayonets will be further reduced. At the same time, the cost of this rifle will increase, and it is unnecessary to save a little money from alloy steel. The new bayonet is a new type of bayonet. It is required to be detachable and adopt a multi-functional blade bayonet design. The bayonet design and production will be responsible for Benxi Tool Factory.

After roughly reading the design drawings, Song Biao and Thomas asked: "What are the problems now?"

Thomas Crossley replied: "There are two small problems now, but they are also very difficult to solve, that is the problem of stroke springs and production costs. We are currently importing springs from a spring factory in the United States, but, they are not Without the standards we need, if we produce it ourselves, the cost will inevitably increase. Even if the stroke spring is not considered, the manufacturing cost itself is definitely not low, about 30% higher than that of the Shenyang rifle, and a large amount is required at the initial stage of production. The production capacity of skilled technicians will be relatively small unless we have better special machine tools and simplify the production process as much as possible. In this way, the investment cost will still be very high."

Song Biao thought for a moment and said, "Cost is not a problem, it is the key to find a way to solve these problems as soon as possible."

Thomas Crossley was a little surprised. Considering that this new rifle would have to be equipped with hundreds of thousands of units, the total cost was still amazing, but he quickly added: "If the production volume is expanded to a certain level, the cost will be It's a lot of decline, but I guess it's necessary for us to continue to increase the production of the m1910 Winchester rifle and Shenyang rifle for a long time. Both of these can effectively supplement the production capacity of this new rifle, and ammunition It is consistent and will not lead to waste."

Song Biao nodded, which was obviously the best solution, and instead asked Thomas Crossley: "Have the problem of designing a new scope precision rifle based on Shenyang rifle has been solved?"

Thomas Crossley said: "The question of time, the rest is repeated inspections to ensure that it is excellent and can serve in the army for a long time. Our problem is that the scope must be imported from the German Zeiss company, and both Sch Enfu and I I have considered replacing it with local scopes, but the optical glass provided by Far East Glass Factory is still of poor quality. In fact, even in the United States, I can't buy such scopes. This is a real German product."

Song Biao had never considered the issue of using his own scope in the near future. He said: "When we talk to Shi Enfu later on, we can make a plan and gradually solve the technology in four or five years. , the problems of raw materials and production processes.”

Thomas Crossley said: "If you set up a factory directly in the United States or have a telescope company in the United States produce it on your behalf, although the performance is different, it can be at least used."

Song Biao said: "This can be used as an alternative."

Immediately, he continued to ask Thomas Crossley: "When will the new semi-automatic rifle be brought out?"

Thomas Crossley said: "The entire gun test can be carried out at the end of the year. If everything goes well, some spare parts will be officially put into production around the end of next year. It can be produced completely in our factory in about three years. The key issue is production capacity.

That's it."

Song Biao sighed and said, "Try to speed up!"

Thomas Crossley said: "In fact, it can be produced in advance at Winchester, and that will happen much faster."

Song Biao shook his head and said, "No need for the time being."

His plan is to start formally installing this new type of rifle before World War I, and slowly wait until the end of World War I to obtain a larger scale of loading, take the opportunity to deal with Tsarist Russia, earning more benefits is a little more benefits, and getting Winchester

The company's production may have made a fortune during World War II, but money is not very important to him.

What is important is not making money, but killing people with a gun.
Chapter completed!