After a deep conversation in the study, Crown Prince Frederick wrote the last strokes in his notebook, and then rearranged his thoughts with his eyes closed, convinced once again that he had memorized the logic and rigor of the plan. He looked at the clock on his desk and said with a smile, "It's almost twelve o'clock, we have to go down for lunch, or the wiki will be rushed." ”

"Daddy, I have something to show Uncle Herman!" Joey gestured to the drawing tube he had placed next to his desk.

"Jojo, what do you want to show me?" Sir Grusen asked curiously?

"Herman, I promised Joey yesterday that he would give him twenty minutes and let him introduce you to some of his own gadgets." The crown prince said apologetically to his old friend.

"Oh, what Joey invented, it's really exciting!" Sir Gruson smiled as he looked at the drawings that Joey was spreading out on his desk. As the drawings gradually opened, the smile on Sir Gruson's face faded and was replaced by a serious expression, and after a careful half-time, Sir Grusen said to himself, "This is not a small thing, Fritz, I don't think twenty minutes is enough!" ”

Joey depicts a Lee-Enfield short rifle on this drawing, the exact model of which is the SMLE No.1 MKIII*, which was originally in service in 1907. Not only did Joy meticulously depict the structure of the gun on the drawings, but he also drew some of the standard accessories of the production version of the Lee Enfield rifle, such as canvas bore protectors, canvas straps, oil cans and ropes that could be hidden in the stock, and bayonets that matched the raised bayonet mount under the barrel.

The bayonet is also drawn in the style of a 1907 sword-shaped bayonet, about 55 centimeters in length, and Joey also specifically notes the yield strength of the bayonet in high-carbon steel, and carefully draws the cowhide scabbard with a steel sleeve on the top. In addition to the 10-round magazine, Joey also drew an additional 20-round magazine next to it.

Sir Grusen and the Crown Prince focused more on the guns themselves.

"The rotary rear-pull bolt, the rear end locking device, this design is innovative. Mr. Mauser's Type 1871 rifle uses a rotating rear bolt bolt that is a front-end locking device, hehe, it's a bit interesting, I didn't expect Sir Dreiser's rotary locking method, there was Mr. Mauser's front-end locking, and Joey's your rear-end locking. Sir Gruson looked repeatedly and carefully at the bolt of the gun on Joey's drawings.

"Jojo, what was your purpose in designing the rear end of this gun?" The crown prince was also interested in this part of the design of the bolt.

"The purpose of this bolt locking is to increase the rate of fire of the gun, and frankly, with this short-stroke locking, a skilled shooter can use out this 10-round magazine in less than 10 seconds." Joey said.

"Empty a magazine of 10 rounds in less than 10 seconds?" The crown prince was somewhat surprised by Joey's statement.

"Father, please believe it, this is perfectly fine, the bolt of this gun is much less laborious to pull up than Mr. Mauser's Model 1871 rifle. Let's just say that an 11-year-old like me can easily pull the bolt, and I can't shoot any worse with this gun than an adult with an 1871, because the recoil of this gun is also light. Joey replied confidently.

"And, against this very light bolt, when firing, I still have... Well, I also came up with a rapid-fire method that allows me to shoot as fast as 40 rounds a minute with the reload time! Joey still brags a little, this is a skilled marksman level with a lot of training, but a recruit who has been rigorously trained can fire at a rate of 20 rounds a minute.

"Joy has a point, Mr. Mauser's Type 1871 has four locking lugs in the front-end locking bolt, while Joy's rear-end locking bolt only has a protrusion at the back of the bolt, so the force of pulling and pushing the bolt is much smaller. It's just that in order to ensure the effectiveness of the lock, Joey designed another groove in the middle of the receiver, because of this groove, the receiver wall of this gun is a little thicker than that of the Type 1871. In short, the design of this bolt requires high machining accuracy. Sir Gruson examined Joey's design with the eyes of a firearms expert.

"The receiver part is the key to the accuracy of this gun, and if this part is not machined well, it will have a great impact on the shooting accuracy of the gun." Sir Gruson gave the final conclusion.

When Joey heard Sir Dougruson talk about accuracy, he suddenly remembered some details of Lee Enfield's ultimate improvement, the No.4 MK2, and then Joey pointed to the drawings and said, "Uncle Herman is right, I think my gun could be improved, especially in terms of accuracy." For example, the barrel can be replaced with a heavier heavy barrel, the size of the receiver and the bolt part can be appropriately larger and thicker, and the door can be simply moved to the tail of the receiver and changed to the hole type, which also makes the aiming baseline longer, and further improves the shooting accuracy. ”

"There is also a gauge, match the gauge and the hole to make an L-shaped ruler with two diameters, one large and one small, cancel the vertical frame ruler, the large hole is used for shooting within 300m, and the small hole is suitable for shooting within 600m."

Sir Gruson nodded and said, "Joey, you can try it all, and moving the baseline back to the door has become longer, which can indeed improve the accuracy of shooting, but in terms of the ruler, I still prefer the accuracy of the vertical frame ruler to be better, but you can also try the structure of the L-shaped ruler with two sizes of holes." ”

Sir Gruson looked up from the drawings and said to the Crown Prince, "Joey's gun, from the design point of view, is a good gun, but in the end, it needs to make actual samples to test, but I think the samples and the blueprints should be inseparable." ”

The crown prince was still looking at Joey's drawings carefully, and after hearing his old friend's words, he thought for a while and said, "If this gun's rate of fire is really as high as Joey said." 40 rounds a minute, this rate of fire is too exaggerated, I still don't believe it, but if the rate of fire can reach 20 rounds a minute, or even 15 rounds .... Oh my God, it's scary to think about. ”

"15 rounds a minute... This rate of fire is amazing enough, and if it is really such a high rate of fire, I think that the choice of the direction of the wind on the battlefield will become more and more important. Sir Gruson raised a concern.

"Herman, you mean the white smoke that comes from firing with black powder?" The crown prince asked.

"Yes Fritz, with such a high rate of fire, if you choose a bad wind direction on the battlefield, I think it will definitely be a painful thing for the soldiers to shoot with this gun." Sir Gruson nodded.

"Uncle Herman, Daddy, my second little thing is for this question." Joey laughed and said, "A smokeless gun-projectile charge!" ”

"Smokeless propellants?" Sir Gruson and the Crown Prince asked Joey in unison.

"Yes, smokeless propellants!" Joy gave an affirmative answer again.

"Jojo, is this true? Show it to me! You know, when I was in the Austro-Prussian War, I started using the Dresser rifle, and since then I've wanted a smokeless propellant that can replace the damn black propellant. That's the kind of thing you should have told me yesterday. The crown prince waved anxiously to his son.

Joey was speechless for a while, and said to himself, "Dad, yesterday you were worried that I cheated Uncle Herman out of his money!" ”

Joey pulled out a page of paper on which was written the ingredients of the smokeless propellant: nitrocellulose, nitroglycerin, and petroleum jelly, as well as the process of dissolving them in acetone, drying them, and cutting them into a string. This recipe is Lee Enfield's ancestral smokeless propellant formula, which is often referred to by the British as the "Colleen" bibase propellant.

Sir Gruson and the Crown Prince looked at each other in surprise, and then the Crown Prince looked at Joey and asked, "Jojo, is this smokeless propellant as simple as that?" ”

"It's that simple in terms of raw materials, but nitroglycerin in it is very dangerous, please be careful when manufacturing, in addition." Joey pointed to the recipe and said, "When this smokeless propellant is made in the same way as described above, it is like a red spaghetti strand of thin pasta, and it is just as long as you put them in the same brass shell as the Mauser gun, and it is also fired through the primer of the cartridge case. ”

"It should be noted that the ratio of nitrocellulose, nitroglycerin and petroleum jelly still needs to be tested to find the optimal combustion rate of smokeless propellants." Joey added.

Sir Grusen looked at the recipe, nodded and said, "I'm definitely going to experiment, well, if this thing is true, then it will be a revolution in the history of rifles." ”

"Uncle Herman, the chamber pressure of this propellant is not low, but ordinary steel is not." Joey reminded.

Sir Gruson nodded, and said, "I'll try the best carbon steel in the mill." ”

Joey thought for a moment, and said to Sir Gruson with some hesitation, "Uncle Herman, yesterday at my mother's salon, I met Mr. Professor Gibbs, and my mother's foundation is funding him to work on an alloy steel called nichrome, I wonder if you are interested in collaborating?" ”

"Of course, of course Joey, I'm willing to fund any new steel-making technology." Sir Grusen said eagerly.

"Originally, I wanted to sell this nickel-chromium alloy technology to the Krupp family, but now it seems that it is better to give it to Uncle Hermann first. It seems that the Krupp armor of later generations used other technologies on the basis of nichrome, what kind of technology? ...... I really can't think of it, alas, if I can't think of it, forget it. ”

"But speaking of which, Harvey's nichrome armor can help Uncle Herman continue to develop, after all, as long as charcoal is added to the heated nichrome steel plate, what is the heating temperature of this alloy? ......, ah, I really forgot about it. "Joey's train of thought is starting to get seriously off the line again.

Sir Gruson looked at Joey, who was obviously out of the way, and didn't know what to say, but fortunately, the crown prince was well-informed about his son, and was about to wake up his son.

"Knock knock!" A sharp knock on the door woke Joey first.

Then Crown Princess Victoria rushed into the study, pointed at a group of people of all sizes and said angrily, "What time is it, can't you just eat lunch and continue to talk, why are you so careless about your body?!" ”

"Oh, Mom, are you going to eat..... Can you give me another 10 minutes, just 10 minutes, and I'll talk to Uncle Herman and Dad about one thing. Joey pleaded with her mother.

"My dear, our son is saying the last thing, which is important to Herman, just 10 minutes." The crown prince also pleaded with his wife.

"Vikki, it's only 10 minutes, I promise we'll be over right away, go downstairs and eat right away." Sir Gruson pleaded in the same way.

The crown princess glanced around, thought for a moment, raised her finger and said, "10 minutes, only 10 minutes!" Then he turned and went out and closed the door.

"Qiaoqiao, let's talk about alloy steel!" Sir Gruson urged.

"Uncle Herman, about alloy steel, now Professor Gibbs is conducting research with the funding of the Crown Princess Victoria Foundation, Uncle Herman, you have two ways to obtain this patent, one is to bid at the Princess Victoria Foundation's patent licensing auction, and the other is that the Princess Victoria Foundation is ready to transfer part of the fund's equity, and you can obtain the patent authorization by obtaining equity. The Victoria Foundation has signed research grants with almost all the scientists in Germany, and the weapons and smokeless propellants you just saw, as well as alloy steels, are the scientific research results of the Foundation. ”

Joy said to Sir Gruson with a straight face, "Given that Uncle Herman, you are the person my parents trust the most, and I, as the manager of the Victorian Crown Prince's Fund, I am willing to vote in favor of your ownership of a portion of the Foundation." ”

"Actually, the Foundation is currently my one-vote system, and it will be in the future." Joey winked mischievously at Sir Gruson.

"Hahaha, Fritz, I'm convinced of your little Joey, showing me so many things, fishing for me so much interest, how could I give up the equity of the foundation!" Sir Gruson laughed in agreement, and then said to Joey, "I am willing to give 500,000 Imperial Gold Marks for a stake." ”

"Well, 10% equity." Joey reported the percentage of equity he was going to sell.

"Qiaoqiao, how can you give Uncle Herman such a low equity ratio, do you know how much 500,000 gold marks are!" The crown prince's face was a little unbearable, and he felt that Joey was completely opening his mouth in a lion.

"Nope! No! No! Fritz. Sir Gruson looked at the embarrassed and somewhat angry Crown Prince and said, "What Joey has shown me and told me today is completely beyond the value of this money, and believe me Fritz, the money I gave today is actually earned by me." ”

Sir Gruson pointed at Joey again, and said, "Jojo just doesn't show me these things, just based on what I saw yesterday in the salon and today, I am ready to give him 500,000 Imperial Gold Marks to manage the Foundation, I have already thought about it before I come to the Imperial Palace." ”

"Jojo, I've got a bunch of good things for nothing!" Sir Gruson shook his head and smiled at Joey.

"It's okay, anyway, I can still collect royalties from Uncle Hermann every year." Joy also smiled and said, "Uncle Herman, I'll go get the equity transfer contract and patent authorization letter, please wait for me." With that, Joey ran out of the study.

About five minutes later, Joey hurried back to his study with a newspaper in one hand and a stack of papers in the other. Then he put the newspaper and papers in front of Sir Gruson, looked at Sir Grusen and said, "Uncle Herman, does your steel mill produce rails?!" ”

Sir Grusen, who was talking to the crown prince, was stunned, "Of course, my rails are of better quality than those in the UK, and they can be said to be the best in the world." Joey, what do you want to do? ”

"America, do you want to do business in the United States?" Joey asked eagerly.

"America, I haven't heard that the United States needs railroad tracks, Joey, where did you hear that?" Sir Grusen asked, a little strangely.

"Here!" George pointed to the Berlin Morning Post that he had brought up, and said in a corner of the advertisement, "These are the three newspapers the day before yesterday, yesterday and today, and the US Embassy has published a job posting in the newspaper for three consecutive days, which says that Americans are now willing to hire a large number of German railway engineers to work in the United States with twice the salary!" ”

"I saw it the day before yesterday when I was preparing the salon materials. I also used this advertisement as material for the United States to snatch German talent, and I saw it again when I was preparing the documents just now, so I found all the newspapers for the past three days, and this advertisement is all there! I am sure that the Americans are going to start building railroads on a large scale! Joey declared in affirmative.

The Crown Prince and Sir Gruson immediately grabbed the newspaper and read it carefully.

"Knock knock!" The knock on the door is ringing again!

"Wiki!" "Honey!" "Mom!"

"Give us ten more minutes!" The three shouted together.