The news of this technological breakthrough was not also kept secret, so soon people in the mining, machine building, army, navy, agriculture, shipbuilding, fishing, immigration, trade and other departments knew about it. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

The use of good steel is so wide that it is a much-needed material for all sectors. Therefore, many departments have taken spontaneous action, hoping to strive for more steel quotas for their departments.

"Captain Jack," said Lucien mysteriously to Captain Jack at Captain Jack's house, "have you ever heard of the Expanded Bullet rifled gun?" ”

"Dilated bullet rifled gun?" Captain Jack wasn't well-versed in these things, and he shook his head and said, "I haven't heard of it." ”

"When the flintlock pistol was imitated, the major general proposed such a design." Lucien explained that "the Major General designed the bullet as an oblong shape slightly smaller than the inner diameter of the barrel, dug a hole in the tail of the bullet and placed a cork there." I got a flintlock pistol with a thickened barrel, pulled a spiral line in the barrel, and then loaded the special bullet in the normal way for a shooting experiment, and guess what? ”

"Something must have gone wrong, right?" Old Jack said, "Otherwise, whether it is your men or the soldiers of the Marine Corps, they should have this thing in their hands, and it is impossible for me not to know it." ”

"Actually, the results of the experiment were very good." Lucien shook his head and said, "Even at a distance of three hundred to four hundred paces, the bullet has a fairly high accuracy rate, which is four times longer than the effective range of an ordinary rifle!" It even exceeds the effective range of a normal artillery gun when firing shotguns! And the reload speed is also slightly faster than a normal rifle. ”

"If the effect is so good, then why are the troops not equipped? Is it because of manufacturing costs? Old Jack asked.

"The cost of manufacturing? Well, you can say the same thing. Lucien nodded, "Captain Jack, do you know why this rifle has such a long range?" ”

Old Jack shook his head.

"Ordinary bullets, after they are fired, will fly a little farther away. But the bullets fired by this gun were different, and when the gunpowder exploded, the cork was pressed into the cavity at the end of the bullet, and the soft lead opened outward, closing the barrel, and then embedding the spirals and spinning along it, like a spinning top. The gyroscope is stable, so the bullet will not float around after being fired, so it can be accurate even at a great distance. "It's just that these bullets rub violently against the barrel of wrought iron, and wrought iron, you know, is very soft, it's not wear-resistant at all, so the rifling -- I mean the spiral that is carved into the bore -- is worn out very quickly, so that a rifle, after firing no more than a hundred rounds, has a great effective range, and at two hundred rounds it is almost indistinguishable from an ordinary rifle." The cost of manufacturing such a rifled rifle is inherently higher, and the service life is so short, therefore, naturally, there is no way to equip the troops. ”

"I see." Old Jack nodded and said, "If this barrel is made of steel, then its service life will be greatly extended, and then it will really become an effective and terrible weapon." Let the combat effectiveness of your infantry be greatly improved. But what are you telling me all this for? The Marines don't need this for the time being, you know that the Marines are different from you, the main combat mission of the Marines is to capture the opponent's ships, and more often than not, it is close combat, and we don't have too high requirements for the range of the rifle. ”

"But didn't you think that the technology that can be used in rifles can be used in artillery just as well?" Lucien asked.

"Rifled artillery? Sounds interesting. Old Jack said, "But cannons are not rifles, they require a lot of steel, and with the current production, if a large number of them are used to make cannons, then the other departments will not be able to divide at all, and even then, it may not be enough." Today, our artillery still has a clear advantage over other opponents, and considering the terrible price of steel cannons - considering this, not to mention the major general, even I, will not agree to anyone using precious steel for cannons. ”

"Captain, this is true in the short term, but the production of steel will definitely continue to increase, maybe it won't be long before more steel will be produced, and by that time, steel cannons are not impossible." "Today, we need your help to get more steel to make rifled guns." As you said earlier, the Marine Corps does not need rifled guns, so I hope you will agree to transfer to us a portion of the quota that the fleet has received. ”

"How is this possible?" Old Jack said, "The fleet also needs good steel, and the fleet needs steel swords and bayonets, and all kinds of hooks, all kinds of ...... Why should we give you our quota? ”

"In return, in the future, when we can make steel artillery, we are willing to return the steel we receive from the fleet today at a rate of one and a half times." Lucien said.

"Three, at least three times, or don't talk about it." Old Jack said.

"Twice as much, it can't be higher, no matter how high, the meaning of this cooperation will be limited for us." Lucien said.

……

It was already late at night, and the lights were still on in Zheng Sen's small building.

"Still busy?" Li Xiangjun walked over with a cup of coca tea, and whispered as he placed the teacup in front of Zheng Sen's table. Nowadays, coca has been cultivated a lot, and coca tea is because it contains ancient . Axe handle. Alkali (i.e. can be. Card. Cause), so it has a very obvious effect in refreshing the mind. When Zheng Sen stays up late at work, he often drinks a cup of coca tea.

"Soon, it's almost time to read this report." Zheng Sen smiled and picked up the teacup, took a sip and said, "It's still a little hot." After looking at things for so long, my neck is a little sore, you help me pinch it. ”

Li Xiangjun walked behind Zheng Sen, stretched out his hand to massage the back of Zheng Sen's neck, Zheng Sen closed his eyes comfortably, and then said, "And the forehead, you can also help me pinch it." ”

Li Xiangjun reached out again to massage Zheng Sen's forehead, and Zheng Sen leaned his head back, leaned against Li Xiangjun's soft chest, and gently twisted and rubbed it. Li Xiangjun did not dodge, but hugged Zheng Sen's head to his chest with both hands.

After a while, Li Xiangjun said softly: "Son, the tea is cold." Zheng Sen opened his eyes, let out an "oh", and then asked, "What time is it?" ”

"It's already a child's time." Li Xiangjun replied.

Zheng Sen raised his head from Li Xiangjun's embrace, picked up the teacup, drank all the coca tea in one go, and then opened the document in front of him, looked at it a few times, and then said with a smile: "Sure enough, it's the same as I thought, they all want to ask me for more steel." He glanced at Li Xiangjun, as if he wanted to ask Li Xiangjun, but in the end, Zheng Sen smiled, closed the documents in front of him, and then shook the bell, called Liu De, and asked him to put away all the documents. He had no intention of building a so-called inner study.

Liu De packed up the documents and withdrew.

Zheng Sen stood up, stretched, and then smiled at Li Xiangjun: "It's finally over." Lady, it's late tonight, let's go to bed. ”

……

As the commander of the fleet and the captain of most Western-style sailing ships at sea, Old Jack not only has a lot of influence in the fleet, but also has a certain influence in the fishing department, shipbuilding department, and even the trade department. However, the final announcement of the distribution ratio of steel and steel products disappointed Old Jack very much.

The mining sector and the machine-building sector received the largest share, with the two sectors together accounting for 70 percent of all steel production. Of the remaining 30 percent, half was allocated to the foreign trade sector. It is used to make various swords and armor to make money. The quality of crucible steel far surpassed that of any other steel of this era, and the armor and swords made from it were all divine weapons, which should be able to exchange a lot of wealth for the Zheng family.

The fleet received very little quota, not to mention steel cannons, not even enough to replace the soldiers of the Marine Corps with steel bayonets, basically, only enough to replace each commander with a command knife. Zheng Sen's reasoning is that steel products are very susceptible to rust in the offshore environment, even the best ones. The improvement of the combat effectiveness of the Marines after changing to steel bayonets was also limited, so it was better for them to continue to use iron bayonets.

On the contrary, the Army, which has always lacked influence, actually got more steel, of course, if you want to rely on this steel to replace all ordinary flintlock guns with rifled guns, it will definitely not be enough. However, if the army can also make up its mind not to upgrade the bayonets to the soldiers, the steel quota obtained this year will also allow them to build 50 rifled guns.

At the same time, a new problem was placed in front of Zheng Sen, that is, he must open a new sub-base as soon as possible. Taiwan lacks iron ore, especially high-quality iron ore with high iron content and low sulfur and phosphorus content, and also lacks coal mines for coking, so it is not suitable to develop the steel industry here from the perspective of natural environment. In the past, when production was low, it was enough, but now as demand increases, it is important to find a new base that can be used for coking and a large scale that can produce high-quality iron ore and is also suitable for human habitation.

In Zheng Sen's heart, there is an island that is very much in line with this requirement. This island is Hainan Island.