As early as the end of the Battle of Chattanooga, Guan Zhuofan made up his mind to put Christoph . Spencer came to China.

In Kwan Zhuofan's wishful thinking, the "cooperation" model with Spencer is further than Gatling. For Gatlin, he only bought the patent, but for Spencer, he had to "package it as a whole" - patents, machines, and people, all of which could not be missing. That is to say, Spencer and his arsenal, hardware, software, inside and out, all moved to China.

The small town of Apomatox, Robert. After Lee formally surrendered to Grant and Kwan Zhuofan, Kwan Zhuofan became a Dianshan Dushi, and so on, plotted against Spencer.

Spencer hesitated. He is still very grateful to Guan Zhuofan for his kindness, saying that the two sides can cooperate in various ways, including taking shares. However, selling all the patents and moving the entire factory to China, well, I really can't make up my mind.

It doesn't matter, you can't see the post-war situation clearly. As for me, I just threw stones to ask for directions, and I didn't plan to take you away when I returned home.

The so-called "post-war situation" refers to the end of the civil war, the United States focused on restoring production, developing the economy, carrying out large-scale disarmament, demobilizing soldiers, reducing military spending, and Spencer's arsenal would soon lose most of its orders and eventually become unsustainable.

At that time, you had to sell it, and you had to sell it if you didn't sell it, and it didn't sell for much compared to now.

In fact, in the original space, Spencer was forced to sell the patents, factories and surplus products to Oliver under the above circumstances? Winchester.

How can you let this Winchester do such a good thing as buying Spencer? I'll have to do it.

All of them developed according to Guan Zhuofan's predictions: military orders fell sharply, and the arsenal was losing money day by day. Spencer saw that the situation was not good. Took the initiative to find Sandos. He said that after "careful consideration", he was willing to accept Prince Guan's "cooperation conditions".

Guan Zhuofan did not take the opportunity to suppress Spencer's price, but also reserved a small stake for him, and promised that in China, the arsenal would not only "expand reproduction", but also invest more money in the research and development of newer weapons and equipment.

It's not fooling Spencer. Guan Zhuofan's idea of playing on Xiao Si. Not only did he want to produce Spencer repeaters for himself, but he really wanted to be able to land on him and make a big golden finger.

After the Spencer Arsenal was relocated, it was renamed "Shenjiang Arsenal" and located in the "Industrial Park" of Gaochang Temple.

Christopher. Spencer became the general manager and chief engineer of the "Shenjiang Arsenal".

Although the general manager, chief engineer and senior technicians of the "Shenjiang Arsenal" are all Americans, it is the first "own arsenal" owned by Guan Zhuofan in the true sense.

"Own arsenal" does not mean that it must be operated and managed by "yourself".

Guan Zhuofan has always believed that Chinese are beginners. At the beginning, I wanted to eat a hot rice ball, but I must not be able to reach it quickly. Not only is the cost-effectiveness ratio low, but the resulting thing is 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 follow as apprentices.

In this way, not only will there be good things to use from the beginning, but after ten or eight years, the Chinese who are apprentices can also become teachers, and when the time comes, they will take over the hands of foreigners and really operate and manage the factory from beginning to end.

An arsenal, as long as "itself" has an absolute controlling stake; At the same time, the factory is located in China, and it is under the control of "oneself", which is "one's own arsenal".

When he was in the United States, Guan Zhuofan still held this view: The arms industry is a huge system, and the upstream, midstream, and downstream jointly form an industrial chain, and there are no supporting industries, facilities, and talents in China for the time being.

However, a year and a half has passed, and the surrounding industries and facilities in the area of Gaochang Temple have begun to emerge; In addition, the guns of this era are relatively simple in structure and technology, and the requirements for "matching" are not as unattainable as those of later generations. A Spencer gun, most of the components, can be produced in the same factory.

Of course, some of the metal raw materials still have to be imported.

After a detailed investigation, Spencer came to the conclusion that after the relocation of the arsenal as a whole, the engineers and senior mechanics will continue to be served by Americans, and the Chinese side, as long as it can provide junior technicians who meet the standards, the production of the arsenal will not be worse than the American "original".

"Providing a standard junior tradesman" - does not seem easy?

No, the seeds that Guan Zhuofan sowed by hand two years ago have already blossomed and are about to bear fruit, and he will immediately have the ability to "provide junior technicians who meet the standards".

Before Guan Zhuofan went to the United States, Rong Hong once set up a school for him to open "dozens or hundreds of schools in Jiangsu, so that children from poor families can also read and write".

The idea was a good idea, but in the circumstances, it was too far ahead. At that time, Guan Zhuofan was just a second-class marquis who had just stepped down as the governor of Jiangsu, and he had to be sprayed to death by words to do this kind of business of grabbing the imperial examination with great fanfare.

Besides, at that time, Jiangsu's foreign affairs were just a little eyebrow-raising, and in a short period of time, there were not so many positions to digest the graduates of "dozens or hundreds" comprehensive schools.

However, Guan Zhuofan did not completely dismiss Yung Hong's suggestion, and he established two "professional schools" under the "Cantonese Dialect Museum": one was a "financial crash school" - which had already come in handy; The other is a "technical school".

The "engineering department" of the Army Military School presided over by Nagatoshi Wada is different -- it trains engineers; "Technical schools" train skilled workers. This year, the first batch of students of the "Technical School" will graduate, and if you calculate the time, it will be the time when the "Shenjiang Arsenal" will start.

In addition to the "Shenjiang Arsenal", "Free Trade Zone" and "Industrial Park", other Chinese and foreign factories are also eager to find talents, and the first batch of graduates of the "Technical School" has long been booked.

"Spencer is very satisfied with the location of the Shenjiang Arsenal in the 'Industrial Park,'" said Libin, "He said that whether it is land leveling, roads and docks, or other supporting facilities, the 'Industrial Park' has done a very good job, even in the United States, but it is only so - even better than the United States!" ”

After a pause, he continued: "Spencer said that he could see that the Chinese government had put a lot of effort and investment into the 'industrial park'. He has never seen a government make such a large investment in industrial and mining enterprises in the early stage of 'infrastructure construction'. ”

Guan Zhuofan was slightly proud: Lao Tzu copied this set of Dongdong from the original time and space, it is still very effective.

"And, Spencer said, he thought about it for days, and thought that the idea you came up with -- well, 'using the power of gunpowder gases to make the gun complete a series of procedures such as unlocking, unpacking, feeding and re-locking, so as to achieve automatic continuous firing' - was possible!"

Of course it's possible - Xiao Si, I'm glad you can recognize this.

This is what I said above, Guan Zhuofan hopes to fall on Spencer, the big golden finger that he prescribed: a real automatic rifle.

In this era, the Spencer repeater is already the rifle with the highest "automatic process", but it is still not a real "automatic rifle", because all the procedures such as unlocking, shelling, feeding, and locking need to be done manually. Only by "using the power of gunpowder gas to make the gun complete a series of procedures such as unlocking, unpacking, feeding and re-locking" can it be regarded as an "automatic rifle" in the true sense.

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 repeater.

The American Civil War ended, the military stopped ordering, and the Spencer Arsenal was operating dismally and unsustainable. Oliver? Winchester bought Spencer's patent, factory, and remaining products to invent the Winchester rifle based on the Spencer repeater. Later, Maxim modified and tested the Winchester rifle to create the first true automatic rifle.

Guan Zhuofan believes that if the basic technical reserves are mature, the funds are sufficient, and the thinking is correct, it is not impossible to open this golden finger in advance.

At this time, the basic technologies 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 way of thinking -- can provide it yourself, and probably the only person in the world who can provide it at this time.

Such a cheap gold finger, if you don't open it, you can't open it!

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