Wild North America 1846

Mid-February 1849

Just after the Lunar New Year, it coincides with the early spring season, and California has ushered in an overwhelming spring snow. The mountains and rivers are frozen, and the snow is falling thousands of miles away.

Widespread snowfall lasted intermittently for two days, killing some of the green spring that had just bloomed in its seedling state.

Clearing up after snow

A group of dozens of cavalry galloped on the snowy road from Chang'an Xinshi Town to Fangcaodi. The royal flag was fluttering, and all the accompanying knights were majestic. They were all cuirassiers of the Royal Guards Cavalry Regiment. In the cold conditions

He still looks extremely tough and impressive.

The remaining snow was splashed by the horse's hooves and crushed into mud.

Breathing the cold air of early spring, the elite officers and soldiers of the Guards Cuirassiers had red noses, but they still maintained a strict formation, and their steel armor and leather shoes were polished to a shine, which represented the glory of the royal family.

Richard was riding a pure-blooded white Suffolk heavy horse. His body was as strong as a dragon. He was riding the horse surrounded by a group of personal guards. His deep eyes were already looking at the distant town of Fangcaodi.

When the king of the Tang Dynasty travels, he will be escorted by at least a squad of personal cavalry, and at most by a squadron of personal cavalry. There is no such thing as the Manchu and Qing dynasty where the emperor went out to patrol thousands of people. All etiquette was simple, and there was no footwork.

Chariots, dragon chariots, canopies, flags and other things.

After all, it's just a small country with a million people, so there's no need to engage in such frivolous things.

Richard didn't like the red tape of the Eastern Dynasty, which was bound to be feudal dross that would be abandoned by the trend of the times. It had no meaning except to encourage the emperor's vanity and completely separate himself from the people.

The horse galloped all the way, and the snowflakes splashed by the horse's hooves were like mist.

Fangcaodi Town is lined with buildings, and its scope has expanded much more than a few years ago. The tall European-style buildings with 4 to 5 floors on both sides of the avenue extend into the distance and are almost connected to the Grape Valley.

Due to government restrictions, no buildings were allowed to be built at the entrance of the Grape Valley, so a large square with an area of ​​one million square meters was formed outside the entrance of the valley.

Municipal buildings are all built around the square, including churches, Taoist temples, temples, and more urban shops and residential buildings, so densely packed that you can’t see the edges at a glance.

After years of construction, Shanhaiguan has been continuously raised and fortified. Above the pass is a three-story Chinese palace-style building, majestic and tall, just like the gate of Beiping City.

The city gate is also built in a three-arch shape, with a tall main city opening in the middle, which is planned to accommodate trains in the future, and two small city gate openings on both sides that can pass pedestrians and carriages.

Passing through the main city cave of Shanhaiguan and continuing to the inside is a broad road. The snow on the road has been cleared to the side of the road. All kinds of horse-drawn carriages carrying people and goods drive on the right side, and there is an endless stream of traffic.

More than 10 guards cavalry rode in front, forming a flying geese formation, shouting loudly for everyone to retreat.

The golden royal emblems on the flags on their backs already showed their identities. Carriages dodged along the way, and passersby stood respectfully along the street with their hands hanging down. Their eyes looked excitedly at His Majesty's majestic figure galloping past, with uncontrollable admiration.

.

The smooth Grape Valley Avenue extends inward, with a broad flowing river on one side, and buildings scattered high and low on the hills on the other side, stretching into the distance.

three years

Grape Valley has taken on the majestic appearance of a modern urban community, reflecting the comprehensive construction of the Tang Kingdom. The high-rise apartments in the town, gas street lamps, well-dressed Chinese and their wives and children all reflect the vitality of the kingdom's economic development.

.

After galloping for about half an hour, I saw a postmodern mushroom-shaped building far ahead, which is the world-famous Colt Arms Company. This big mushroom was designed by Earl Samuel Colt himself.

He also presided over the construction of the main factory building, which has a very large internal area.

Got here

The group of people slowed down slightly, and from a distance they saw Earl Samuel Colt leading the weapons company executives to come out.

"We sincerely welcome your Majesty and wish you good health."

"Forgive me, Your Excellency."

Richard dismounted from his horse at the square in front of the Colt Arms Company, handed the horse's reins to the guard officer beside him, and said to Samuel Colt with a friendly expression: "Let's go, we don't have to stand in this place to blow the cold wind.

, let’s go inside and watch and talk.”

"It is better to obey orders than to be respectful, please, Your Majesty."

Earl Samuel Colt made a gesture of invitation sideways, and after Richard strode over, he followed closely, always maintaining a respectful posture of one step behind.

After several years of rapid expansion, Colt Arms has developed into one of the world's leading military equipment companies.

It has more than 7,600 workers and is able to produce the best-selling Colt 1846 cavalry revolver, Colt 1848 lever-action repeating rifle, Storm heavy machine gun, British licensed 6-pound, 12-pound, 20-pound, 30-pound, 40-pound

Pound and 60-pound series caliber field artillery, deck guns and shore guns, new copper-cased custom bullets, Colt double-barreled shotguns, Coltmini rifles and other equipment have received a large number of orders from European countries, including France and

Prussia was a European army power.

Among them, the Ottoman Empire alone ordered a large number of army weapons and equipment such as 30,000 Colt 1848 lever-action repeating rifles, 12,000 Colt 1846 cavalry revolvers, and 5.5 million rounds of new copper-cased fixed bullets.

The popularity is evident.

The power of these new weapons and equipment of the Tang Kingdom is an ironclad fact verified by the outstanding achievements of the Yankee Corpse Mountain and Blood Sea, and there is no doubt about it.

The powerful European countries are all over-the-top masters and will not easily look down on the industrial capabilities of North American countries.

Without the unlucky Americans as a background, these established European powers would not be able to obediently dig into their pockets and place large orders.

Earl Samuel Colt was indeed very capable and extremely talented in the design and production of weapons. The factory he designed himself was spacious, bright and very modern.

Not only that, Earl Colt and his engineers personally designed weapons production equipment and bullet production equipment, and realized industrial production of unified specifications, which was of great industrial revolutionary significance.

The entire weapons company was able to develop to the scale it is today and become famous all over the world. It can be said that Earl Colt took the greatest credit and played a key role in the military victory of the Tang Kingdom.

After inspecting around, looking at the busy workers in the spacious workshop, Richard asked with a smile: "Your Excellency, you are not busy making money every day, but delaying technological research and development, are you?"

"Your Majesty, I really feel that I am unable to do my job well!" Earl Samuel Colt looked distressed.

He is now in happy distress. He holds an order contract for 100,000 long and short guns from Europe. The weapons company has expanded rapidly again and again, but still faces the dilemma of insufficient manpower, insufficient equipment, and insufficient production capacity.

Seeing that Colt Arms Company is about to develop into a world-class military factory with tens of thousands of people, various management and production problems are complicated. Even a genius like Samuel Colt feels overwhelmed and difficult to deal with.

, let alone find time to develop new weapons.

Richard shook his head in disappointment and said earnestly;

"Your Excellency, you cannot do everything by yourself. You must let go at the appropriate time and let other talented people help you manage the company and manage production.

Only in this way can we get away from trivial company affairs and engage in the most meaningful weapon research and development.

Similarly, in weapons research and development, there is no need to do everything personally. As long as you grasp the direction of research and development and determine the correct scientific research route, some technical work can be completed by a team of engineers.

Colt Arms Company has developed to its current level. We need to learn to let go and delegate power. All we need to do is tighten our financial and personnel rights.

According to the equity change agreement originally promised, part of the Colt equity held by the royal family can be partially resold to you. This is a reward for your hard work, and it is also an expectation.

We hope to make the cake of the weapons company bigger. You must know that Colt Arms Company is only making achievements in the field of long and short guns. In fact, the biggest cake is artillery.

A large-caliber coastal defense gun can easily cost thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars. How much is the British first-class sailing battleship equipped with more than 200 guns worth?

This is the largest weapons market, don’t let a leaf obscure your vision!

If Colt Arms Company wants to truly achieve this, it must get involved in the field of artillery research and development, improve processes, and improve designs. As long as it produces artillery with excellent performance, are you still afraid that there will be no buyers? Are you still worried that Colt Arms Company will not make money?

?”

The king's words made Earl Samuel Colt's eyes light up. He was originally a very smart man, but he was temporarily blinded by interests and could not see the longer term.

The enlightenment in Richard's words made his head clear instantly.

Immediately, Earl Samuel Colt realized something, and looked at His Majesty the King with surprise and joy, full of enthusiasm and expectation.

Most of Colt Arms' best-selling new products come from His Majesty the King's whimsical ideas, which are then implemented by Mr. Colt.

This company was originally owned by the royal family with absolute control. The king came up with ideas for his own weapons company and took a big share of the profits. No one thought there was anything wrong with it.

In weapon design and innovation, creativity is the most difficult part, but it is not difficult to realize it.

In particular, Colt Arms Company, which has a group of the world's top weapons designers such as Samuel Colt, has strong R&D capabilities from idea to realization, including lever-type repeating rifles, heavy machine guns, and all-metal fixed weapons.

Loading bullets and so on.

Of course, Richard didn't have to sell it. He originally came here for the leapfrog development of artillery, revealed some world-leading ideas, and also for the development of the armaments of the Tang Kingdom, and by the way, he also made some money.

So, under the earnest and fiery eyes of Earl Samuel Colt, Richard put his hands behind his back and said as he walked;

"The artillery technology in today's world has not changed for decades, and it is still stuck in the past since the Napoleonic era.

As can be seen from the Battle of Red Rock Valley, the power of artillery seriously lags behind the new Storm-type heavy machine gun, and it is unsatisfactory in terms of lethality, deterrence, range and explosive effect.

After being summarized by the General Staff Headquarters of the Tang Dynasty, there are roughly four shortcomings, which are also important improvement directions for artillery in the future.

First, the artillery range is too close and the shooting accuracy is too poor.

The main 6-pound and 12-pound field artillery have a range of mostly 600 meters to 1,500 meters, with small coverage and poor accuracy, and can only be used for probabilistic shooting.

The direction of improvement and improvement should be to strengthen the sealing of the breech block, increase the power of gunpowder, and improve shooting accuracy. If necessary, rifled gun design should be considered to fundamentally change the long-standing problem of poor shooting accuracy.

Second, the old front-loading method of artillery is no longer suitable for the current battlefield environment.

Whether it is a heavy machine gun or a rifled Minie rifle, its range can threaten artillerymen 800 to 1 kilometers away. Artillerymen loading shells under the enemy's muzzle is tantamount to death.

The direction of improvement and improvement should be breech loading, which has been discussed in relevant papers in France and Italy.

If nothing else happens

Improvements in European artillery will soon be seen, but I hope Colt Arms makes a mark in this area rather than waiting for the Europeans to take the lead again.

Third, the type of artillery shells.

Nowadays, artillery shells are still solid shells and shotgun shells. Oh... By the way, the navies of Britain, France and other countries also have a type of chain bomb, which is specially used to attack the masts and sails of sailing battleships.

to be honest

The solid bullets mainly used by this artillery have a pitiful strike effect. They are more of a mental comfort, and their killing effect on the enemy is far inferior to that of the Storm heavy machine guns and lever rifle salvos.

in this regard

The direction of improvement should be to make artillery shells that explode when they hit the ground. Can we add fuzes to the artillery shells? As long as they hit the ground, they will detonate, forming tens or even hundreds of steel fragments, and the killing power will inevitably be greatly increased.

from a technical point of view

This kind of impact fuse completely belongs to the field of mechanical and chemical engineering. As long as the design is sophisticated enough, it can completely replace unreliable shotgun shells or solid bullets that are too powerful, thus becoming the mainstream product of artillery shells.

Regarding the experiments in this area, we hope that the company can conduct them secretly, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Kingdom will cooperate to block the information and implement a secret research and development plan.

Fourth, the power of explosives.

I suggest that Colt Arms Company set up a special laboratory and hire senior chemists to form a research and development team for in-depth research and development.

The demand for a reliable and powerful explosive in today's world is measured in hundreds of thousands of tons. It can fully support a giant chemical company, and its future prospects are extremely broad.

Mr. Earl, do you think so?"

Mr. Samuel Colt was stunned at this time. He was stunned for a moment before he came back to his senses. His heart was already wrapped in great excitement. Can he imagine what a glorious prospect this future would be?

Is it difficult to implement?

The answer is; it is indeed difficult, but it is not untouchable.

Earl Samuel Colter, already excited and incoherent, said;

"What you said is so good, Your Majesty, you are such a great prophet!

Hmm... In the name of Celtic Weapons Company, I will invite top engineers and chemists from all over the world to form four R&D teams to tackle the scientific and technological problems you mentioned one by one.

I myself will serve as the chief designer of the new artillery, and I will be committed to launching a revolutionary artillery, which will definitely become the flagship product of Colt Arms Company and sell well all over the world.

Oh... By the way, there is also a new type of gunpowder.

It's great, it's really great... we've found a way forward."

Facing Earl Samuel Colt's fiery eyes that glowed with excitement, Richard just smiled noblely, brushing off his clothes with a calmness that hid his merit and fame.

What's so exciting about this little thing?

In the future, if Colt Arms Company develops into the world's largest military enterprise or a future chemical giant is born, the royal family's capital will still be the largest controller and beneficiary, and they can just sit back and make money without any trouble. Isn't it delicious?

Richard didn't come here on such a cold and snowy day just to show off. If you remind him at the critical moment, you can not only reap countless huge financial rewards, but also gain the admiration of a talented weapon designer. This is a win-win situation!