Soon Zhou Suoquan was meeting with a member of the parliament of the northern government, and he also brought two 1856 Linde rifles!

It didn't take long for the MP, John, to skillfully reload with an 1856 Linde rifle, aim and shoot.

Zhou Suoquan on the side explained: "Our soldiers used this rifle to defeat those traitors, and then unified the whole of China." And we also defeated the Anglo-French army of more than 30,000 men with this rifle! ”

"This is an excellent weapon that has been tested in the rigors of war and has been widely praised by the army!"

John expertly fired a shot, then put down the gun in his hand, and said with a smile on his face: "However, there is nothing more trustworthy than a weapon that has experienced war!" ”

"But!" John looked at Zhou Suoquan, and then said with a smile: "As far as I know, when your country defeated the British and French forces, it was not this kind of rifle that was used, but a kind of rear-loading rifle!" ”

Hearing John's words, Zhou Suoquan frowned slightly, did this foreigner take a fancy to our breech-loading rifle!

Immediately said: "Our army did use some rear-loading rifles at the beginning, but the main rifle is still this Minny rifle!" So far, this rifle is still the main equipment of our army! ”

John said, "You know, I'm a soldier, so I care more than anyone else about what kind of weapons our military uses. And the reason why I met Mr. Zhou today is not for this rifle! ”

He said, putting the 1856 Lind rifle back on the shelf: "You know, the British have a lot of this Mini rifle. And it's pretty cheap, only $25 a piece. It can even be lower, and we're doing large-scale in-house production. So ......"

John didn't stop, but continued: "But you also know that it's not just us, but those guys in the South are also heavily armed with Mini rifles, so we need a weapon that can change the pattern of war and end this damn war quickly!" ”

Zhou Suoquan didn't know what he meant at this time!

"So you want to buy our breech-loading rifles!"

John nodded: "Yes, if you can sell it, we can purchase a batch appropriately for trial, and if the effect is good, increase the purchase quantity." Of course. We also want to get a patent grant to be able to produce this weapon ourselves! ”

Zhou Suoquan said: "I have to say, your request exceeded our expectations, you must know that the manufacture of this kind of rear-loading rifle is very troublesome, and the production is very small, and the price is expensive, it is difficult to supply our army now, and it may be difficult to sell it on a large scale!" ”

"I know, but there's a price for everything. Not to mention that this is just a rifle, and if you don't want to, then we will contact the Germans, contact the British. It is said that the rear-loading rifles of the Germans were also good. The breech-loading rifle modified by the British is also okay! ”

Another implication of John's words is that the northern government of the United States is now actively trying to obtain breech-loading rifles, and the Chinese Empire is just an option for them. If the Chinese do not sell, then they look for the Germans. Look for the British.

Although it is said that the guns of the latter two have not been tested in war, they are slightly inferior in performance data. But that's a rear-loading rifle anyway.

Zhou Suoquan did not refuse at the first time, nor did he agree to John, because this matter was beyond his authority, and he wanted to report it back to the country and let the country make a decision.

"The Americans want to buy our 1858 Linde rifle?" When Lin Zhe saw the telegram sent back by Zhou Suoquan, the minister to the United States, he couldn't help but be puzzled.

Originally, he thought that it would be very simple to sell Mini rifles to the United States, after all, the United States is now rushing to ask for smoothbore guns, let alone Mini rifles, but he didn't expect that the Americans really didn't want the 1856 rifle, but proposed to purchase the 1858 Linde rifle.

Lin Zhe didn't know that the reason why he paid attention to rear-loading rifles in the early days of the American Civil War was because of his factors!

In the Battle of Shanghai in 1858, the Chinese Army, armed with breech-loading rifles, completely defeated the British and French forces, which brought a violent shock to the British and French leaders, who agreed that the defeat was due to the use of breech-loading rifles.

The outbreak of this war directly allowed Britain and France to carry out the research and development of rear-loading rifles for many years in advance, and Britain began to modify the 1853 Enfield rifle in 1859, and now it is equipped with tens of thousands of modified models, and the modified 1853 Enfield rifle is known as the 1859 Enfield rifle.

Britain has modified the existing Mini rifle, and several other countries have followed suit, and France, Austria-Hungary and other countries have successively launched the modification of the rear load.

Historically, this kind of global research and development of breech-loading rifles, modification of breech-loading rifles to 1864 after the outbreak of the Prussian-Danish War, Germany used breezy rifles to clean up Denmark with Mini rifles, the direct result of this war is that Britain and France and other large votes of European countries immediately began to develop breech-loading rifles, and at the same time large-scale modification of Mini rifles.

And this wave is years ahead, although the time is several years ahead, but the whole process is almost the same.

The large-scale appearance of rear-loading rifles is at least four or five years longer than history, mainly because Lin Zhe applied rear-loading rifles on a large scale in advance and achieved good results.

At the same time, everyone is not stupid, they didn't know it before, but once they knew, they would definitely immediately keep up with the development of rear-loading rifles.

The kind of thing where the protagonist himself punches and kicks the world with a breech-loading rifle, and the opponents who are still stupid and continue to use Mini rifles one by one is impossible to appear in the real world.

In this kind of big background, the Americans are not stupid, and naturally they know very well that the armies of all countries in the world have already modified the rear loading rifles on a large scale, and in this case, they are naturally unwilling to continue to purchase Mini rifles on a large scale, but try to purchase more advanced rear loading rifles.

Just on a global scale at the moment. There are only three rear-loading rifles that were specially designed and put into mass service, namely the 1858 Linde rifle of the Chinese Empire. Germany's Dresser M1841 needle pistol, Norway's Kamelryder rifle.

Of these three rifles. In fact, only the Chinese 1858 rifle has survived a large-scale war, and the other two rifles have not yet been tested by a large-scale war.

At the same time, the Americans themselves also found these rear-loading rifles for testing.

The test results show that the 1858 Linde rifle of the Chinese Empire has the best performance, and its rate of fire, accuracy, and range all occupy a large advantage.

In addition, the Americans also found the British 1859 Enfield rifle and the French modified rifle, but these modified rear-loading rifles are only modifications, although they can barely be regarded as rear-loading rifles, but the performance data in all aspects cannot be compared with the small-caliber rear-loading rifles that specialize in shooting, let alone the 1858 Linde rifle.

So it is not surprising that the Americans wanted to purchase the Chinese 1858 rifle, but unfortunately they had asked the manufacturer of the gun before. The answer was rather disappointing to them, because they said the gun would not be delivered.

So the Americans just put this thought on hold and went to the British to try to get the 1859 Enfield rifle from the British.

waited until Zhou Suoquan took the initiative to come to the door to sell ordnance, which rekindled the hope of the Americans!

If the rifle could be purchased from China and a patent could be granted, the Americans would certainly be willing.

But that's just what the Americans think.

For the Chinese Empire, the 1858 Linde rifle is the main weapon now and even for many years to come, and it is not an exaggeration to say that it is a strategic pillar weapon of the Imperial Army. This is also the reason why the Reich is reluctant to export such weapons on a large scale.

From 1858 to the present, the control of the 1858 Linde rifle by the Reich is very strict, and the arsenals that produce the gun are completely prohibited from selling the gun to the outside world, let alone any technical licensing and the like.

However, Lin Zhe looked at the telegram sent back by Zhou Suoquan, the minister to the United States. But for the first time, I thought about whether the export controls for such rifles could be appropriately relaxed.

After all, it's already 1861, not 1858.

The advantages of rear-loading rifles are now widely recognized around the world, with the British and French mass-modifying Mini rifles. It is also no secret that the conversion into service with a breech-loading rifle is no secret, according to the return of the Imperial diplomats in Britain. On the British side, at least more than 30,000 1859 Enfield rifles have been modified and put into service in the past two years.

This data has already shown that the British side of the 1853 Enfield rifle modification has entered a mature, large-scale mass production period, and it will not take a few years to estimate that the British will be able to convert all the Minnie rifles in service into rear-loading rifles.

At the same time there is intelligence reality. At the beginning of this year, the British side was already testing a number of specially designed small-caliber rear-loading rifles.

Although it will take at least two or three years before the large-scale mass service of small-caliber breech-loading rifles in the UK, these two or three years are not a long time, and for the development of a country, it is only a blink of an eye.

That is, in at least three years, the Reich's 1858 Linde rifle will lose its technical superiority, and in five years it may even fall into mediocrity.

In this regard, Lin Zhe on the one hand urged the following technicians to upgrade the existing 1858 Linde rifle, and on the other hand, let the technicians focus on the development of metal bullets.

If all goes well, maybe in five years the Imperial Army will be able to equip it with a breech-loading rifle that uses metal bullets!

Anyway, this breech-loading rifle is about to become popular, and it won't have much effect if it is hidden and tucked away, so it is better to take advantage of the fact that it still occupies a slight advantage in the national arms market.

It is important to know that the Linde Machine Factory, the developer of the 1858 Linde rifle, has long been looking forward to easing export restrictions on this rifle.

If this rifle can be successfully exported and sold well in the international arms market, it will bring great profits to domestic defense industry manufacturers, and only with sufficient profits can it support the technological upgrading of the national defense industry and expand production capacity.

In the end, it was the Imperial Military that benefited!

In this regard, after thinking about it for a long time, Lin Zhe finally made a decision to cancel the sales control of the 1858 model, as long as he placed an order from the Americans, he could sell it, and even the Americans could grant the patent as long as the starting price was paid. (To be continued.) )