The Army's selection of a new generation of standard rifles began as early as 1870, which is not to say that the Army was not satisfied with the current list of 1864 Linde rifles, but with the addition of metal bullets in foreign countries, the Imperial Army felt that the existing rifles had lost their leading performance advantages.

Even because the design age was too early, with the passage of time, the original performance lead gradually turned into low performance, and the Linde 1864 rifle, which was in large-scale service in 1864, was already slightly inferior to the Mauser 1871, which was only in service in 1871.

And this was an important factor in the Imperial Army's promotion of a new generation of rifles.

After all, the Imperial Army, which has led the armies of the world since the era of rear-loading rifles, can hardly tolerate that its own rifles are inferior to those of others.

After two years of research and development, the Army Ordnance Department has selected the last five designs from dozens of various establishments, although the designs of these five rifles are different, but they all have a common feature, first of all, the caliber is 11 mm, which is to be able to continue to use the 11 mm rifle cartridge in the Empire's large stockpile, and the Linde 1864 rifle formation before and after.

In addition, the 11 mm caliber is used, which is also due to the limitations of the current rifle bullet ******, and today's bullets still use black powder ******, which has limited kinetic energy.

Generally speaking, the kinetic energy of black powder is only one-third of that of smokeless gunpowder, and the rifle caliber of the smokeless powder era has only dropped to less than eight millimeters, and if the rifle caliber is reduced to eight millimeters or even lower now, the kinetic energy of this rifle bullet will be insufficient. This, in turn, affects the range.

Therefore, although there are no clear regulations, the manufacturers still set the caliber of the new rifle at 11 mm. to increase competitiveness.

In addition to the caliber, the bolt is also much the same. Of course, this can't be blamed for not innovating, because there are only a few ways to come and go about the bolt and locking method of the rifle, and the rear pull rotary bolt has become the standard configuration of the rear rifle, and it is difficult to change anything.

The biggest difference between these five rifles is the difference in the way of ammunition feeding, and the design of some other details is different, and this difference will affect the cost, reliability and other performance of the gun.

And for a rifle that has to produce at least a million pieces, the cost issue is very sensitive. Even if it is an extra 10 percent of the cost, the army may spend tens of millions more in the end.

Reliability is even more important, as the main weapon of the army, the only reliance of the infantry, its reliability is very important, to be able to fire bullets in any environment.

At the same time, considering the vastness of the Imperial territory, the combat area of the Imperial Army has been from the tropics near the equator to the North Pole near the Arctic Ocean, from 50 degrees Celsius to minus 40 degrees Celsius, so the rifle must be tested by normal temperature, high temperature and low temperature.

Aeolian sand in deserts, high salinity in coastal areas, and humid tropical and subtropical environments are all factors that need to be taken into account.

In addition, the real combat situation is taken into account. Soldiers are unable to maintain their guns effectively, so there is a risk that guns can get into sand, mud, and so on.

These are the conditions that need to be met for a standard rifle to be equipped on a large scale.

As time passed, the rifle tests began, and as the soldiers who tested the guns fired one after another. The crisp sound of gunfire is also echoing one after another, and the current test is generally to test the actual combat performance. The main ones are accuracy, reloading, rate of fire, etc., as for some other tests. In particular, the environmental test has already been carried out beforehand, and the score of the environmental test will be added to the actual test later. In the end, the overall score will be the winner.

However, the specific choice of the new gun, it is impossible to rely solely on objective data to speak, sometimes the subjective factor of people is also a very important point, for example, when the soldier test, although the accuracy and rate of fire of the gun are relatively fast, but if the soldier thinks that the gun is more difficult to operate, or simply does not like to use, then it will also affect the final result.

The test of the gun will not be over for a while and a half, and Lin Zhe will not stand there stupidly and watch for an hour or two, you must know that this actual combat test needs to fire a lot of bullets, otherwise who knows how the barrel life and the reliability of continuous use will be.

Taking advantage of the test, Lin Zhe also looked at some data reports of these rifles, in addition to the most basic performance data, these reports are more about some environmental test results, cost estimates, and some actual use results when they were previously issued to the test troops for a small amount of test equipment.

When looking at these reports, Lin Zhe suddenly remembered for a while, and then he looked up and asked the chief of the ordnance department next to him: "Do you still use black powder for guns and bullets now?" Isn't cotton gunpowder made, isn't it possible that smokeless powder that can be used for ****** has not been made? ”

Lin Zhewen's cotton gunpowder is a contemporary word, and the professional term of later generations is nitrocellulose, which was invented very early, and it is not a secret in the world, and the relevant manufacturers of the empire have also conducted research and obtained samples.

As for smokeless medicine, Lin Zhe remembered the follow-up development products of nitrocellulose, although he didn't remember the details, but thinking that this had been studied for several years, hadn't he come up yet?

Hearing Lin Zhe ask, the chief of the ordnance department next to him looked embarrassed: "Back to the emperor, we have already issued a relevant research contract to Jiangnan Chemical Company five years ago, and there is also relevant research on the Imperial Academy of Sciences, and the research on the most cotton gunpowder has also achieved certain results, but it is ......."

This answer has these two words, and it is not surprising that the chief of the ordnance department is embarrassed, it is nothing more than that he has not studied it.

"This cotton gunpowder is too dangerous, the year before last, Jiangnan Chemical Company caused an explosion of cotton gunpowder due to carelessness, which blew up the entire research institute, and also led to the martyrdom of two engineers who returned from studying in France, so the research and development progress slowed down!"

Hearing him explain this, Lin Zhe couldn't say anything, if he was engaged in scientific research. In most cases, it is relatively safe, except for the chemical industry. Especially when it comes to gunpowder, it's basically about being in the company of death. The slightest mistake is an explosion.

Nobel, the father of modern explosives, who is famous in history, established many explosives projects, and even his younger brother was killed in the explosion, and his father was seriously injured. Explosion accidents are very susceptible.

This kind of thing can happen intensively in Europe, and after these things ******** nitrocellulose and arrive in China, it is naturally impossible to put away their temper because of China's 5,000-year-old history or magnificent culture, and it should have an accident or an accident.

Lin Zhe can't say at this time that they should continue to speed up the research and development progress regardless of the danger, but it's not easy to say that there is danger, you still want your own safety as the priority, and simply don't develop it.

So he could only be silent.

If the empire wants to obtain smokeless gunpowder, if it wants to obtain ***, it has not been developed in foreign countries. In the case of relying on oneself, with the current level of chemistry of the empire, I am afraid it will take many years, and whether this can be developed before other countries is a very suspenseful matter.

But if a foreign country develops it first. When the time comes, we must buy technology as soon as possible, so that the empire can still keep technology from lagging behind.

Before that, Lin Zhe thought of something else. For example, maroon gunpowder, the so-called maroon gunpowder. In fact, it is still a kind of black powder, mainly because the formula and manufacturing process are different. It burns a little slower than traditional black powder, which is very practical as a ****** for artillery, especially long-range artillery.

There is no secret about this maroon gunpowder, it is constantly improved from black gunpowder, and the main gunpowder supplier of the empire, that is, the Jiangnan Chemical Company, has already made it more than maroon gunpowder, and now it is mainly used in naval guns and used as ******.

In addition to the maroon gunpowder, Lin Zhe's thoughts slowly fell into memory, the smokeless gunpowder can't be made for the time being, *** is also gone, what can be used now?

When encountering this kind of thing, Lin Zhe will often dig out the memories that have been precipitated for more than ten years, trying to find out the available information, how did smokeless gunpowder come out? What is the formula?

After recalling for a long time, Lin Zhe was very helpless to find that maybe when he first came to this world, he would still remember these, but more than ten years later, not to mention the unpopular memories that he only came into contact with when he was in school, even some common sense he was about to lose his memory, sometimes he couldn't remember that the American president in later generations launched the Gulf War, what was the name of the terrifying boss who hit the Twin Towers? Is it called Allah's magic lamp? No, this is a fairy tale lamp, so what is it called?

Lin Zhe recalled for half a minute, and finally remembered Uncle bin Laden, who was full of beard, wrapped in a turban, and looked sloppy!

Thinking continued to diverge, Lin Zhe thought of the Japanese again, then thought of the Russo-Japanese War, and when he thought of the Russo-Japanese War, he would think of the naval battle of the Tsushima Strait.

When I think of this naval battle, the words bitter acid come to mind in the depths of my mind!

Picric acid, I seem to have seen some anecdotes that this thing was invented a long time ago, and has been used as a dye ever since.

Picric acid, dyes!

Thinking of this, Lin Zhe suddenly stood up, and this sudden move startled several officials next to him, but before he could react, Lin Zhe said directly to the chief of the Ordnance Department: "Convey it to the Academy of Sciences, let them find out the bitter acid!" ”

"Picric sour?" The Chief of the Ordnance Department was a little confused, and he assured that he had never heard the name before.

Lin Zhe said: "It's a dye, and it's also a dynamite!" ”

Although Lin Zhe also knew in his memory that the bitter acid was also unstable and not very easy to use, but in history, the Japanese could use it, and there was no reason why the empire couldn't use it!

Although I don't understand why Lin Zhe suddenly talked about picric acid, dyes and explosives, but the people next to him couldn't ignore Lin Zhe's words, the chief of the ordnance department immediately took out a notebook and wrote it down, and prepared to transfer the relevant words to the chemists of the Royal Academy of Sciences after going back.

When Lin Zhe and the others were talking about gunpowder, the gunfire outside also stopped, and then after some tense statistics, a final report was finally formed and handed over to Lin Zhe.

Along with the report, there are also soldiers of the Guards who had previously test-fired the firearms, and they will personally tell Lin Zhe about their experience of using them.

At this time, everyone is looking this way and listening, because now is the time to decide on a new rifle. (To be continued.) )