So, be sure to have your own arsenal. Buying weapons and ammunition alone will not buy a truly powerful army.

The so-called "own arsenal" does not mean that it has to be built and managed by the Chinese, Guan Zhuofan has always believed that such a slow work is not urgent, and the efficiency ratio is too low, and the things made are likely to be unsuitable. In the beginning, the entire factory should be built and managed by foreigners from beginning to end, and even skilled workers use foreigners, and Chinese are apprentices.

In this way, there are good things to use at the beginning, and after ten or eight years, the Chinese who are apprentices can almost become teachers, and at that time, they will build a real "own" factory.

Christopher? Spencer, together with his arsenal, when the war is over, Guan Zhuofan plans to get China in one go.

Moreover, Guan Zhuofan's idea for Spencer was not only to ask him to produce Spencer repeater guns for himself, but also to open a golden finger on him and develop weapons that had not yet appeared in this era in advance: hard lead bullets, magazine feeds, bolts - real automatic rifles.

This is not a fantasy, in fact, the first real automatic rifle invented by H.S. Maxim in later generations has a very close blood relationship with the Spencer serial gun: the American Civil War ended, the military no longer ordered, and the Spencer Arsenal was dismal and difficult to maintain. So, Oliver? Winchester bought Spencer's patent, factory, and remaining products to invent the Winchester rifle based on the Spencer repeater. Later, Maxim modified and shiyan the Winchester rifle to create the first true automatic rifle.

How can you get this Winchester to do such a thing as buying Xiao Pan? I'll have to do it.

Kwan Zhuofan thinks. If the basic jishu reserve is ripe. Adequate funding. And if the thinking is correct, it is not impossible to open this golden finger in advance.

At this time, the basic jishu of modern rifles had appeared and were close to maturity, such as firing pins, bolts, metal fixed cartridges, smokeless gunpowder, and so on. Money, needless to say; And the right train of thought - can provide it yourself, and may be the only person who can provide this kind of train of thought at this time.

This idea is to use the power of gunpowder gas to complete a series of procedures such as unlocking, unpacking, feeding and re-locking. Thus enabling automatic continuous firing.

This is something that everyone has known since then, and it is not surprising to put it bluntly. And this new gun that is still painting cakes is called "Yixuan style"?

There is also a weapon that was very famous in later generations, which had been invented at that time, and Guan Zhuofan was also very interested, this is the Gatling machine gun.

The Gatling gun is a hand-cranked, multi-barreled machine gun, and its automatic principle is the same as that of a revolver: a set of transmission mechanisms is used to rotate several barrels around a common axis to complete continuous fire. Before the advent of electric motors, rotation was achieved by manually turning the handlebar.

When the Gatling gun was first invented, the rate of fire had reached 250 rounds per minute. After that, it continued to improve and increase, and honesty is a sharp weapon. But unlike the Spencer Repeater. Spencer was a full-fledged weapon almost as soon as it came out, and it came in handy as soon as it was put into production, and it was a big one. But at this time, Gatlin was still very immature, smoking, leaking, stuck, and having countless problems.

During the Civil War, the U.S. army was equipped with a small number of Gatlings, but contrary to Spencer's glory, Gatling did not leave any truly commendable achievements, and Gatling did not enter until 1866 after the war.

Gatling's embarrassment is not only that Jishu is not mature enough, but also that in the tactical system of the army at that time, he didn't know where to put Gatlin's monster.

At that time, there was no concept of machine gun support for infantry at all. The Gatling was heavy and had two large wheels, which had to be pulled in order to move; The operation is very complex and requires four soldiers to operate. Therefore, Gatling is rightfully regarded as a kind of "fast cannon". Gatling was first introduced to China, and his translated name was "Grimm Quick Cannon".

The problem is that if you are really a member of the artillery, not only is it incompatible with the artillery system, but compared with the Napoleonic cannon, the power of the Gatling is not brilliant, and the artillerymen will not understand: what are you inserting a stick in the middle of me?

In other words, Gatling must wait for the improvement of himself and the adjustment of the military system before he can really exert his power.

The current equipment of the Xuan army has formed a generation gap for the southern army, there are not many more Gatlins, and there are many less Gatlins.

However, of course, such a promising weapon cannot be let go, and Guan Zhuofan's jihua is: to do a trick to draw wages from the bottom of the kettle - to buy Gatling's patent.

That is, he wants to monopolize Gatling's R&D, production, sales, and use.

In the decades before the invention of the Maxim machine gun, Gatling had dominated the field of machine guns, and there were almost no decent challengers, partly because the Gatling mechanical structure was very complex and difficult to imitate, and on the other hand, it was also more important because Gatling's patents were extremely exclusive.

There are two points in Gatling's patent, one being "a cylindrical rotating body with a firing pin inside that provides a lock chamber that rotates with the barrel"; One is that "each barrel has a separate firing pin." As a result, all future designs similar to the Gatling gun could no longer be patented.

And the design idea of the Maxim machine gun is completely different from that of Gatling.

The patent system is good, it's good.

And Richard? Jordan? What about Gartlinkn's refusal to sell his patents?

Ken's.

At that time, Gatlin was even worse than the previous Spencer. Spencer is still a "rifle", what kind of monster is this "Gatling"? Even Gatlin himself was embarrassed to call it a "gun", but a "rapid-fire weapon", and you can imagine how troublesome it is to sell it. What's more, Spencer is really easy to use, and Gatling is really not easy to use.

In addition to proposing a price that Gatling could not refuse, Kwan also promised to provide all the funds for subsequent improvements, with no upper limit. Gatlin was very moved, thinking that he had met a benevolent man who loved science and supported the new jishu, but in fact, Guan Zhuofan's real meaning was: If you don't continue to improve, how can I use it.

In the future, this Gatling machine gun can be sold to the Americans, allies; In the mood haode words, selling a few to Prussia is regarded as a return for the peach; The United Kingdom, France, resolutely ban sales!

Thinking that the Gatling machine gun would crush the lobster soldiers in the future, Guan Zhuofan could wake up laughing in his sleep.

Again, it's a matter of tactics.

Skirmishers tactics are the future. In terms of weapons, with the equipping of breech guns, it can be regarded as initially having the material conditions for the implementation of skirmisher tactics. However, the requirements of the straggler tactics on the overall quality of the soldiers are not comparable to those of the soldiers who are shot in line, and not only that, but at the same time, the establishment of the troops must be thoroughly reorganized, and the squads, platoons, and companies must be turned into grass-roots combat units. The way of command is also completely different from the way of lining up to shoot, not only the soldiers have to learn from scratch, but also the officers have to learn from the beginning.

And in this era, there is simply no object to learn from.

On this issue, Guan Zhuofan did not dare to do it behind closed doors. He only roughly knew that the skirmisher tactics were based on the combat group, that is, the infantry squad, as the basic combat unit, and that every soldier should understand his or her combat position and combat mission, and that when a company and platoon charged, they should combine the points and cover each other, and that they should not be crowded or scattered, and so on.

Other than that, I had to sigh: Alas, it's good that I was a soldier in the original plane.

In the face of such a huge system project, it is necessary to be careful and take it step by step. Guan Zhuofan's plan is to plant a shiyan field first: select a Spencer battalion, reorganize it, train, command, and fight in accordance with the basic tactical principles of stragglers, find experience little by little, feel the rules, adjust the running-in, and see if he can find a set of effective methods, and then decide whether to popularize it in other units or even the whole army.

This Spencer battalion, called the "special forces" of the Xuan Army, is also OK.

This matter is in a hurry, and it is necessary to study and discuss it with Wall and other military commanders.

*(To be continued......)