After looting a large amount of equipment from the arsenal, the first thing to install was naturally the rapid-fire guns on the two ships of Nanrui and Nanchen, and the progress of this refitting was very fast, before Lu Hong had already carried out a comprehensive transformation of the gun positions of the two ships on the slipway, just waiting for the rapid-fire guns, and now the gun tubes are in place, Liu Yiding, who is in charge of this task, confirmed that the installation of six guns is only a week.

The 7 engineers recruited by Lu Hong again quickly put into the weight reduction and transformation of the old Makqin machine gun, all of these engineers have participated in the imitation of the Makqin machine gun, however, the overall design of the Eight Classics to reduce weight, obviously can not be achieved overnight, the First World War is undoubtedly the most popular era of the Makqin machine gun, the German-made MG08 and the British Victor light Makqin machine gun achieved the two masterpieces of the era.

However, it is the Victor light Maxim machine gun of the British industry, which has almost reduced one-third of the weight of the machine gun, but the weight of the whole gun still reaches 17 kilograms, plus a tripod of more than 20 kilograms, which can be regarded as barely realizing the motorization of the Maxim machine gun.

However, the prototype Maxim machine gun that Lu Hong has now in his hands weighs 27 kilograms alone, and with the iron wheeled base, the weight of this machine gun is more than 80 kilograms, and there is no mobile surname at all! Therefore, Lu Hong's first choice for transformation is naturally not to redesign a light Makqin, which is impossible to complete without a large number of skilled craftsmen, but it is much simpler to replace the iron wheel weighing more than 50 kilograms below.

Soon, Wang Xiancai, the engineer in charge of the machine gun transformation, appeared in front of two pencil sketches, Lu Hong naturally did not have any doubts about the feasible surname of his own drawings, but he carefully plagiarized the design of the pry machine gun mount of the German MG08 and the triangular gun mount of the British Victor light Makqin.

Several engineers were obviously surprised by this drawing, and asked with some confusion: "My lord, this electric gun is extremely heavy, if you don't install wheels, how can it move at will?" ”

Lu Hong naturally had already made arrangements for this, and he had already had a clear plan for how to configure his machine gun crew, indeed, according to the training state of the Manchu army in this era, it was indeed a big problem for ordinary soldiers to carry the 27-kilogram machine gun and carry out military maneuvers normally...... However, the military discipline battalion that he carefully selected was an excellent source of soldiers at the officer level, and after more than two months of large-scale physical training, this physical fitness far exceeded the state of the military academy at the beginning.

Du Wenlan, the squad leader next to him, was obviously not satisfied with the underestimation of these engineers, and immediately walked out, without saying a word, squatted down and picked up a Makqin heavy machine gun, put his waist on his shoulder, and then shouted the slogan "One ...... Two...... One...... The second ......" had already come back from a long lap after a while, that is, just a little panting.

This guy's performance immediately won a round of applause, and several engineers were surprised, naturally no longer have any opinions, and began to point to the drawings and muttered to discuss, but they still couldn't make up their minds, but one of the engineers, who was very young and estimated to be twenty-five or sixteen years old, spoke first, "My lord, you want to move this stun gun quickly......

Lu Hong nodded and motioned for him to continue.

"According to your meaning, these two types of brackets obviously must be able to be folded up, easy to carry and move, in that case, this square bracket, using riveting technology, is easier to process, and the other triangular bracket, just the three-point bite part, small personally made, I'm afraid the yield rate will not be too high!"

This engineer named Wang Changzhi, after some analysis, immediately made Lu Hong feel satisfied, and he immediately appointed this person to take a few engineers here to be responsible for the production of this gun carriage, "Wang Changzhi, my requirements are very simple, the gun carriage should be stable, the weight should not exceed 25 kilograms, and it is convenient to move at any time...... If you do these three things, I have an extra reward! ”

Several engineers immediately responded to the errand excitedly, although the salary of the Machinery Bureau here is not bad in Shanghai, but it can be seen that this Lord Lu is far more generous than the General Manager Liu of the Manufacturing Bureau......

On the same day, Lu Hong personally convened the officers of the military discipline battalion in this factory, Ouyang Hao, Chen Huan, He Dingyi, Du Wenlan, Wang Daosheng, these outstanding soldiers formed their core military strength, however, Wang Daosheng was mainly responsible for the training of the security regiment of the machine factory, so the intersection with several other officers was relatively small, and today's meeting can be said to be one of the few times.

Lu Hong's decision to make today's decision is actually largely due to the current situation, in such a domestic environment and the old bureaucracy's control of the government, he can be regarded as a fast track to climb up to the promotion, but now it is only the promotion of the five grades, and he has just entered the ranks of middle-level bureaucrats, but it is really far from the feudal officials, if it is not for Wang Renkan's banner, it is impossible to gather any military force.

However, the fact that things have been deduced to the point where they have actually greatly exceeded their expectations, and what they have to do, at present, it is obviously impossible to train the army on a large scale, which is completely beyond Wang Renkan's responsibilities and authority, but will cause big trouble...... However, relying on military discipline battalions to build small and powerful troops is an excellent option.

And after a series of understandings of the Huai army, he strengthened his determination, and what he wants to do today is to lay the foundation for the establishment of this powerful new army!

"Wang Daosheng, tell me about the security team of the machine factory!" Lu Hong glanced at Wang Daosheng, who had a frosty face, this is a trustworthy man.

"Yes!" Wang Daosheng replied with a new military salute very proficiently, "According to the requirements of adults, the members of the security team of the machine factory are all children of farmers in Songjiang Mansion and Suzhou, and they are very ......honest After the initial training, in addition to physical fitness, military discipline has also improved significantly! ”

Lu Hong nodded with satisfaction, and then glanced at the others, "According to my assumption, and also with the approval of Lord Qincha Wang, our military discipline battalion obviously cannot become the kind of backward and incompetent army, but must have an army with more combat effectiveness than the conventional army...... So, I approve the decision to create a heavy fire battalion! ”

Heavy Fire Battalion ...... This term immediately excited the people present, which is obviously synonymous with a very strong army...... And they immediately thought of the Maxim machine gun, which was being further improved! (To be continued.) )