The 1858 Linde rifle has been in service for more than three years since it was finalized and put into service in the second half of 1857, although many technical innovations have been made in the design of this rifle, such as rubber gaskets, paper shell bullets, and shortening the length of the firing pin by changing the primer from the middle of the bullet to the bottom.

However, there will still be many problems in actual combat use, and with the development of imperial industrial technology, especially the continuous research and development of technology by the Royal Arms Company, some problems exposed by the gun in actual combat have been improved and designed.

The improved version of the 1858 Linde rifle, developed by the Royal Arms Company, was largely identical in appearance and main performance to the original 1858 Linde rifle.

The main technical improvements are mainly focused on some details, such as rubber pads.

In order to further improve the efficiency of breath-holding, prolong the service life of the rubber pad, and avoid the need for soldiers to frequently replace the rubber pad in the fierce battle, Jiangnan Chemical Company, the only supplier of the rubber pad, after several years of research and development, has successfully launched a rubber mat with a longer service life, and the new rubber pad is about one-third higher than the original rubber pad, although the price has risen by about one-third, but the service life has been increased by more than three times.

In addition, the new firing pin developed by the Royal Arms Corporation uses better performance steel, which is enough to effectively reduce the breakage rate of the firing pin when the improved rifle is fired frequently.

At the same time, it is very important that the barrel used in the improved rifle is made of new steel provided by Jiangnan Mining Company, and the barrel made of new steel has a higher barrel life, and at the same time can withstand greater chamber pressure and reduce the risk of explosion.

The use of a range of new technologies has made the improved 1858 Linde much more reliable. Of course, the use of new technologies will also increase the production cost of this rifle. In the end, it will lead to an increase in the price of the gun.

The military is very sensitive to the price of ordnance, especially the increased cost of improving the barrel of the rifle using new steel.

According to the preliminary offer of the Royal Arms Corporation. If this improved rifle enters the mass production stage, the price of the first few batches may reach more than 70 yuan, and even if the military is determined to purchase more than 100,000 units at one time, then the average unit price is very likely to remain above 55 yuan.

Naturally, the military is not satisfied with this, so it is negotiating with the Royal Arms Company to reduce manufacturing costs in all aspects of the Royal Arms Company, and it is best to reduce the average purchase unit price to less than 50 yuan in the subsequent large-scale mass production.

However, despite the fact that the price of the improved rifle will increase even further. However, the military is very satisfied with this rifle, especially when this rifle is tested for metal bullets, it almost perfectly fits some of the characteristics of metal bullets.

As a result, the rifle's firing accuracy is about 30 percent higher than that of the old 1858 Linde rifle with paper shell bullets, the maximum range is increased to 1,000 meters, and the effective range can reach 550 meters with a precision gauge.

At the same time, the barrel life has increased by about two times, and the overall failure rate has been reduced by more than fifty percent.

In the military's harsh (humid, cold, heat, etc.) environment tests, the overall failure rate of the improved rifle with metal bullets was reduced by more than 80 percent compared with the paper shell bullets used by the old rifle.

These are important reasons why the military is obsessed with improved rifles and metal bullets!

There is even a voice within the military. The mass armament of the current 1858 Linde rifle should be suspended, and a one-off service should be put into service once and again when a modified version of the 1858 Linde rifle and metal bullets can be put into service on a large scale.

However, this situation is obviously impossible, and the pace of military expansion is too fast. A large number of rifles are urgently needed to enter service.

At the same time, there are still a large number of troops within the military who are still using the 1856 Linde rifle, which is a Mini rifle, and these need to be replaced as soon as possible.

In recent years, the military has needed at least 100,000 new rifles in service each year to meet the basic needs of the troops.

The most the military can do now is slightly reduce the number of 1858 Linde rifles in service. We will no longer seek to complete the refitting of all units in just two or three years.

And this situation of the military is also to allow part of the production capacity of the three major arms companies to be diverted for export!

Affected by huge orders from the United States. The three major arms companies continued to expand their production capacity for the 1858 Linde rifle in November. The Tianjin Arsenal alone added three new production lines of the 1858 Linde rifle, increasing monthly production by 3,000 units.

By December, the production of 1858 Linde rifles by the three major arms companies had increased significantly, and the total production of 1858 Linde rifles at the arsenals of the three major arms companies had reached 34,000 units that month.

Of these, 20,000 were loaded onto American, British, and French ocean-going merchant ships in the ports of Tianjin and Shanghai, and then shipped to the United States.

Due to the low strength of China's shipping industry, it is simply not able to organize a large number of fleets to transport these ordnance to the United States in a short period of time, and now that the United States is in a period of war, the stronger northern navy of the United States has blocked many ports of the Southern Federation, and it is difficult for the Southern Federation to use its own ships to transport ordnance openly, and although the maritime power of the northern government has some advantages, the maritime power of the Southern Federation still has to fight back, so the northern government of the United States also has to be cautious.

Since the ordnance imported from the empire was a life-and-death strategic material for both the north and the south, and both sides tried their best to avoid the smooth arrival of the ordnance and weapons purchased by the other party, these ordnance were actually targeted by the southern side of the United States when they were still in Tianjin, Shanghai and other ports.

As a result, in order to avoid the sinking of merchant ships loaded with weapons, both sides avoided transporting them themselves, and instead hired British and French merchant ships to transport them.

The Americans dared to attack their own merchant ships, but they absolutely did not have the courage to attack the British merchant ships, and if they annoyed the British, the British dared to send a huge fleet to completely blockade the entire American coast, so that your American Civil War would return to the age of cold weapons.

This situation also caused the Chinese Empire to export arms to the north and south of the United States, usually directly in Shanghai, Tianjin and other ports, as long as these ships are on board, it is already considered a completed transaction, as for how you both ship these weapons back to the United States, this has nothing to do with the Empire.

As a result, British or French merchant ships loaded guns and artillery in the ports of Tianjin and Shanghai, and then shipped them to the United States.

Of course, this is not the only case in China, in fact, the Americans have purchased a lot of weapons from the British in addition to the Chinese Empire.

At first, they purchased more than 100,000 1853 Enfield from Britain, and later because they realized the importance of rear-loading rifles, both the North and the South of the United States urgently needed a large number of rear-loading rifles, and this demand was not tens of thousands, but hundreds of thousands or even millions.

Since the outbreak of the American Civil War, the northern government of the United States has announced the expansion of the army to more than 1 million, and the southern federation has also announced that it will expand its army by more than 400,000 due to its small population.

Even if only half of these newly expanded troops are equipped with rear-loading rifles, then the demand for rear-loading rifles is at least 6.7 million.

As for the source of the rear-loading rifle, the most convenient and simple thing is to manufacture it yourself, but even the imitation work of the northern government for the rear-loading rifle has just begun, and it will take some time to establish a production line, if you want to produce hundreds of thousands, it is estimated that the war will be over at that time.

The best option to buy is the Imperial Chinese 1858 Linde rifle, which proved itself to both sides of the American Civil War through the Second Battle of Manasses.

Unfortunately, China's production capacity is limited, and they can only order 100,000 or 200,000 pieces at most, and there is a gap of hundreds of thousands of pieces.

So they just found the British, although the British's 1859 Enfield was modified from the 1853 Enfield, but it was easier and more convenient, and the British's original 1853 Enfield was very large, and it was very difficult to produce hundreds of thousands of new 1859 Enfield at once, but it was much easier and more convenient to modify it directly on the 1853 Enfield rifle.

They placed orders for the British no less than they placed for the Chinese Empire, in addition to the fact that the northern government of the United States ordered a number of ironclad ships from the British.

In this American Civil War, although the British were robbed of many orders by the Chinese, they still got a lot of orders, even more than the empire received.

Therefore, a large number of British merchant ships also carried all kinds of British-produced weapons of war to the United States!

This American Civil War made Britain and the Chinese Empire a lot of war money, and it played a great role in promoting the empire.

A large number of ordnance orders have allowed the three major arms companies to continuously expand their production capacity and hire more workers!

In this era, national defense work is almost the most important source of power for the development of heavy industry, and the development of national defense industry can directly drive the development of heavy industry.

On the surface, the three major arms companies have received a large number of orders from the United States, but if these three major arms companies want to fulfill these orders, they will have to place many orders from many upstream industries.

For example, if you want Jiangnan Mining Company to order steel, you need to order more coal from many domestic coal companies, you need to order wood from those lumber mills, and you need to order paint, gunpowder, etc. from Jiangnan Chemical Company.

In addition to these raw materials, if these new production lines are added, a large number of machinery and equipment need to be purchased, which requires the order of more industrial steam engines from Shanghai Linde Machinery Co., Ltd., and the need to order more machine tools.

This series of drives will almost lead to the development of the entire domestic heavy industry system, and even because of the large-scale expansion of production by these three major weapons companies, the demand for machinery and equipment will increase by a large margin.

Shanghai Longfeng Manufacturing Co., Ltd. has launched its own ordinary lathes and drilling machines. (To be continued.) )