The military-political conference was still in the making, and another appointment of the Beiyang political axe spread all over the world: Zhang Lan, chairman of the Sichuan Provincial Consultative Bureau, was appointed as the ambassador of the Sichuan Kang Propaganda and a member of the National Assembly, and rushed to Yanjing to take up his post within 30 days.

This was Yuan Shikai's second declaration of power to the whole country after appointing Hu Jingyi as the governor of Sichuan, and it was also a gross interference in the political situation in Sichuan, which completely disrupted the personnel structure of Sichuan's military and political circles, and caused panic and fragmentation in the Sichuan officialdom.

Xiao Yimin, Zhang Lan and a group of think tanks discussed this for a day and a night, repeatedly weighed and argued, but still could not reach an agreement.

In the end, Zhang Lan resolutely decided to go north to take up his post, temporarily sacrificing his lofty ambition to build and develop Sichuan, in order to dispel Yuan Shikai and Beiyang Zhengaxe's deeper suspicions about the group, and go to Yanjing to strive for greater benefits for the people of Sichuan.

Zhang Lan earnestly told Xiao Yimin and the like-minded brothers in front of him: "Although you are bold, the more lively you are in Sichuan, the louder I will speak in Yanjing!" ”

At the end of the lengthy meeting, it was already 9 o'clock in the morning, and Xiao Yimin and Bao Jiqing saw off Zhang Lan, Zou Wenhan, provincial councilor Yang Heling, vice minister of finance, Kuang Youmin, and others, and returned to the courtyard to stroll side by side, continuing to discuss the army's countermeasures.

Zheng Changze, the new lieutenant colonel and adjutant general of the Adjutant General's Office of the Border Army Command, came to the two of them: "Commander, Chief of Staff, Mr. Max and Mr. Watts hope to meet the commander. ”

Xiao Yimin asked in surprise, "When did they come back?" Could it be that the development of mortar shells was successfully completed? ”

"It is estimated that not, the research team came back from the Ya'an base the afternoon before yesterday, and the mental state of several engineers did not seem to be very good, Mr. Max came once yesterday morning, and left when he learned that the commander had a meeting, and he came again yesterday afternoon, the meeting was still being held, Mr. Max asked his subordinates to tell the commander, please go to the research institute after the meeting." Zheng Changze replied.

Xiao Yimin nodded and turned to Bao Jiqing: "If it's okay, let's go together?" ”

"No, I'll go to the headquarters to see, the selection of 3,000 recruits is over, and I'm still waiting for deployment."

Bao Jiqing saluted after speaking, took the adjutant and left the courtyard directly, without glancing at the east courtyard where he lived from beginning to end, which made Mrs. Bao, who was waiting in the small courtyard gate, shake her head.

Xiao Yimin apologized to Mrs. Bao in the past, greeted the two children's learning, and took Zheng Changze to the research institute from the corner gate of the backyard.

Max, the director of the factory, Watts, the director of the research office, and five members of the research team were in a meeting, and when they saw Xiao Yimin coming, everyone stood up and shook hands.

Xiao Yimin greeted everyone and asked Max and Watts to take him to see the results of the experiment with great interest.

Max and Watts readily agreed, and together with the members of the research team, Xiao Yimin was led to the spacious design room.

Xiao Yimin stared at the Mauser rifle with an improved magazine at first sight, and happily rushed to pick up the sample gun, removed the ten-round straight magazine stamped at the front end of the trigger, looked at it again and again, and praised loudly: "Great!" Thank you for your efforts! ”

Watts shrugged disappreciatively:

"Xiao, a little improvement is not worth being so happy, the British did this on the Enfield rifle in the last century, and all European countries have conducted in-depth research and experiments on this, and finally the general conclusion is that as a rifle, this kind of ten or even twenty rounds of external interpolation magazines does not have an advantage over the traditional built-in magazine, but thus greatly increases the manufacturing cost of the weapon, and will form a huge waste in actual combat.

"Moreover, this change greatly increases the weight of the guns and the load of the soldiers, and at the same time requires a large number of matching magazine kits, so the armies of few countries are willing to make this untechnical change, only the stubborn British are still holding on, and the rest is probably you."

Xiao Yimin said disapprerovingly: "I personally think that it is not that everyone does not like rifle magazines that can be loaded with more ammunition, but that they are unwilling to add more manufacturing costs for this, so it is generally believed that the built-in magazine of traditional rifles can fully meet the needs of the army." ”

Seeing a group of Germans nodding slightly, Xiao Yimin continued:

"Dear Watts, I am in favor of the British on this issue, and although I do not have so much money for all soldiers to have access to such a convenient rifle, there is nothing wrong with the direction of development chosen.

"Imagine that when the two armies are attacking each other, my soldiers can fire ten rounds without stopping, and then easily remove the empty magazine, replace it with a new magazine full of ten rounds and continue firing, while the enemy needs to take out a bridge or clip with only five rounds, press the bullet from the top of the rifle, and then continue firing, what will be the result?

"In my opinion, the mortality rate of the enemy must be much higher than that of my soldiers, and I am sure that soon you will see the effect in actual combat."

Watts and a group of German engineers still didn't agree with Xiao Yimin's words, and Max was unwilling to continue to dwell on this small issue, so he asked Xiao Yimin to take a few steps forward and see the results they brought back after half a month of experimentation at the Ya'an base.

"It's a pity, dear Xiao, the shell experiment of the 60mm mortar did not meet the expected design standards, although we solved the design problem of the firing pin at the bottom of the barrel after half a year of repeated calculations and experiments, but still failed to exceed the projectile distance of eight hundred meters, and the killing radius of the shell is only within ten meters, the next step we intend to improve the design of the propellant and the material of the projectile, it is estimated that it will take a long time to perfect."

Max pointed to three mortar shells on the wide table and introduced:

"Xiao, your genius thinking is extremely admirable, you suggested that the shell body should be streamlined and the eight-piece tail is the best effect, which greatly shortens the research time and opens up all of our ideas, after careful calculation, we believe that your design idea is completely correct and has been at the forefront of the world.

"Although we have not made a final breakthrough in terms of shells, as long as we continue, we will not be far from successfully finalizing it."

Xiao Yimin smiled humbly, went up to pick up a mortar shell, unscrewed the conical trigger device in the front of the projectile body, looked inside and out, and couldn't help but praise:

"Great job! This is my ideal mortar shell, thank you for your efforts, it seems that I can't say anything to you this time, haha! ”

Max and Watts glanced at each other, and each saw the guilt in the other's eyes.

Watts took a deep breath, walked to Xiao Yimin's side, took the mortar shell in his hand and put it on the table, looked at Xiao Yimin's surprised face, and whispered:

"Xiao, I have to confess to you that our research has attracted the attention of the Mauser Company and the German [***] side, just three days ago, the German military attache in China, Colonel Brian, and the technical adviser of the Mauser Company, Mr. Hansberg, have arrived in Chengdu, and they have brought the latest appointments and proposals...... "Xiao, I'm really sorry! I didn't expect things to turn out like this, and it was a very painful and difficult decision for us. ”

The smile on Xiao Yimin's face slowly faded, and there was silence in the spacious design room, and a group of Germans waited guiltily and nervously for his reaction.

Xiao Yimin pulled a chair and sat down slowly, subconsciously reached out for a cigarette, but found that he didn't bring it, Max immediately took out the silver cigarette case, opened it and handed it to Xiao Yimin.

Xiao Yimin took out one, approached the lighter that Max knocked on and lit it, took a sharp breath, and slowly spit out: "Sit down, my friends, sit down, I think we need to have a good talk." ”

Everyone sat down on a stool, and like Max, they lit cigarettes one after another, bowed their heads and inhaled.

"Max, there's an agreement?" Xiao Yimin turned to Max, the head of the company.

Max smiled bitterly: "This situation ...... There is not much choice, Xiao, you should know that we are all employees of Mauser Company, we cannot influence the decisions of the company's top management, and most importantly, it is difficult for us to say 'no' to our home country

"As you said before, Europe today is becoming more and more like a powder keg, especially after the constant armed conflict between the many vassal states of the Ottoman Empire in the first half of the year because of reading power, we all trust your judgment, maybe the war is really ...... Xiao, I think this may be the reason for the sudden appearance of the German [***] side, which never interferes in the company's operations. ”

Xiao Yimin had calmed down and nodded and motioned for Max to continue.

Max looked at his group of companions, turned to Xiao Yimin, and continued:

"We all believe that you should be compensated more, and that just because the Rhein Company and the Mauser Company sent more than two dozen engineers and technicians to help build the new Sichuan Arsenal, you are entitled to these results for free, which you have spent a huge amount of research money.

"After two days of joint discussions, our opinions were completely unanimous, whether it was the Rhein Company, or the Mauser Company, or even the German [***] side, they all felt that the Huaxi Group Company should be given a certain amount of compensation, not just the production license and technology transfer of the MG08 water-cooled heavy machine gun and the Mauser 1905 long rifle, because the technology transfer and production license of these two weapons were included in the terms of the equipment procurement of more than two million marks, so we suggested that Germany [***] Fang and the Mauser company representatives have a good talk with you, but I don't know if you would like to meet them. ”

"Very willingly! We have been working together for many years, and we have a close relationship with each other, just like best friends, how can we ignore the good relationship of several years and the prospect of better cooperation in the future because of this little accident in front of us? Max, folks, don't be so low, don't complain, look forward, don't you? ”

Although Xiao Yimin had some pimples in his heart, his smile was still so kind and sincere, which made people feel guilty.

(To be continued)