Hearing Fang Xiaoyu say that the rate of fire of this gun was four to five times that of the breech gun equipped by the Lanfang Empire, Marshal Xia Jun paid attention, and after listening to Zhang Peiyun's explanation, he asked, "Chief Engineer Zhang, how high is the cost of this gun?" Hearing Marshal Xia ask him, Zhang Peiyun explained: "The cost of each of these guns is twice as high as our current guns, reaching 150 yuan each. The point is that this kind of gun is not only expensive to shoot, but also more troublesome to make. Fang Xiaoyu answered next to him: "Although the production of bullets is a little troublesome, the cost has not increased much, has it?" ”

Hearing Fang Xiaoyu's words, Zhang Peiyun replied with some anger: "Making guns is not just talking on paper, do you know how many troops we have in the country?" There are more than 1.5 million regular troops alone, and if all of them are redressed, it will cost 230 million yuan, not including bullets. Do you know the truth? The annual budget of the Lanfang Empire is only about 200 million, and the military expenditure is only 40 million, which is still shared by the army and navy, do you think it is realistic to use this kind of gun? ”

Hearing the data calculated by Zhang Peiyun, Marshal Xia Jun was also taken aback, such a capital investment was indeed too terrifying, but he still muttered with some thoughts: "But the rate of fire has increased by four to five times, maybe you can change your outfit one by one, and it's not impossible to change the outfit of the troops in the capital first." Zhang Peiyun said: "The land area of the countries in the Western Continent is not large, and the standing armies of various countries rarely exceed 300,000, even so they are not all redressed, and at most half of them are used." ”

Fang Xiaoyu, who was listening on the sidelines, pouted when he heard it, and he secretly said that the production process here was really bad, and there was too much waste of materials. If you can use heavy industry, you can reduce the cost by at least half if you can make a production line, use stamping parts instead of cutting parts, and add assembly line operations.

Seeing Fang Xiaoyu's disdainful pout, Zhang Peiyun thought he was disdainful of him, and immediately said angrily: "Looking at the little brother's expression, it seems to be disdainful of what I said, I don't know if you have any clever ideas." Fang Xiaoyu was already a little angry about this Zhang Peiyun's contempt, it seemed that he didn't take out something real to make them look down on him.

Fang Xiaoyu turned his head to Marshal Xia Jun and said, "I have two ways to increase the rate of rifle fire and save costs, I don't know which one Marshal Xia wants to hear?" As soon as Zhang Peiyun heard Fang Xiaoyu's words, he was stunned for a moment, and then thought that this might be a child's angry nonsense, in order to lose his face, so he didn't interject and waited to see Fang Xiaoyu's joke.

Marshal Xia Jun was also stunned when he heard it: "There are two ways?" Or does it not need to be too costly? Fang Xiaoyu nodded: "That's right, one is to change ammunition, but it can be modified at a low cost to existing guns." There is also a way to increase the rate of fire with the same existing ammunition. After listening to Fang Xiaoyu's words, Marshal Xia Jun secretly said that this kid really had some way, and immediately asked, "Can you elaborate on your assumptions?" ”

Fang Xiaoyu nodded, turned around and asked Zhang Peiyun, "Chief Engineer Zhang, can you borrow a pen and paper?" Zhang Peiyun nodded and said, "Of course you can, please come with me." Zhang Peiyun led Xia Jun and his party in his office, and spread the paper and pen he used to draw on the table. I saw that Fang Xiaoyu took the pen without any strangeness, and did not use a ruler, skillfully drew on the paper, and after a while, the anatomical drawings of the two rifles were drawn, and the skillful brushwork made Zhang Peiyun stunned.

After drawing the picture, Fang Xiaoyu pointed to a gun in the picture and said: "Marshal, please see, this first method is to transform the existing front-loading gun." We can mill off a piece of the upper cover at the tail of the barrel to form a chamber that can hold the bullet, and then hinge a breech cap with a firing pin. In this way, it is possible to modify all existing rifles at a very small cost, but the ammunition still needs to be improved, and it is necessary to produce the same fixed ammunition as the Kelder rifle to use, so the only certainty of the modified rifle is that the breech will not be very tight, which will have a certain impact on the range, but I think the Kelder rifle has the same problem. ”

Hearing Fang Xiaoyu's explanation, Marshal Xia Jun nodded again and again, and Zhang Peiyun was dumbfounded, such an idea is really good, that is, it solves the cost problem and completes the upgrade of firearms.

Now Zhang Peiyun's eyes no longer contain disdain when he looks at Fang Xiaoyu, in fact, where does he know that this is not the method that Fang Xiaoyu came up with at all, but the method that the United States came up with to deal with a large number of obsolete front-loading guns when the earth transitioned from front-loading guns to rear-loading guns, this kind of gun is named 'Springfield Trap Rifle'. Marshal Xia Jun also nodded happily and said: "Very good, this way the cost has been reduced a lot, and you can consider a lot of costume changes." ”

After speaking, Marshal Xia Jun looked at another somewhat strange firearm and said, "What kind of gun is this?" ”

Fang Xiaoyu pointed to another picture and explained: "I call this gun a revolver rifle, it adopts a principle similar to a revolver, and a nest is installed at the tail of the barrel, which can be fired continuously. In my estimation, if you don't make major changes to the existing guns, you can install a nest of five or six rounds at most, so that you don't need to make additional ammo to increase the rate of fire, but it can be just as cumbersome to reload. I estimate that the rate of fire of the first five rounds will be twice as high as that of the Kelder rifle, but after five rounds, even the most skilled soldier will need more than a minute to reload, and of course this gun can also be changed to a fixed load, but the cost is higher. ”

The rifle introduced by Fang Xiaoyu this time is designed with the 1855 model of the Colt revolving rifle, and he also used his later knowledge of firearms to modify it a little, mainly using a sealing disc to increase its air tightness, not having to seal the chamber with wax after loading like the original gun, and grease the entire cartridge nest to prevent the leaking gunpowder from igniting all the propellants in the chamber at once.

After listening to Fang Xiaoyu's second plan, Zhang Peiyun had already looked at Fang Xiaoyu with the eyes of a god. Marshal Xia Jun was also very excited, and said repeatedly: "Okay, it's really good, what do you think, Chief Engineer Zhang?" "Zhang Peiyun is the kind of person who is straight, he has always said that one is one, and two is two, and he can change his mistakes and never hide them.

He immediately replied: "It's a miracle, I never thought there could be such an ingenious method, I am really inferior to him, I have to apologize for the previous unreasonable words." Hearing Zhang Peiyun's words, Fang Xiaoyu's impression of him has changed a lot, Fang Xiaoyu is still very interested in this kind of straight person, at least he won't be behind him.

Hearing Zhang Peiyun's affirmation, Marshal Xia Jun nodded and said, "You go and apply for a patent for Xiaoyu first, and then decide which one to use after I discuss it with several high-ranking army officials?" After speaking, he smiled and turned his head to Xiaoyu and said, "Xiaoyu, I don't think you mind licensing us to produce the patents for these two guns." Fang Xiaoyu smiled: "Of course I don't mind, strengthening the strength of the empire is what I should do." ”

Marshal Xia Jun nodded with a smile and said, "Okay, very good." When production begins, I will give you the royalty at a rate of thirty percent of the profit per gun. "In fact, the patent fee is generally one or half of the profit, but in order to have a good relationship with Fang Xiaoyu, Marshal Xia Jun decided to increase the share and give him a good impression. At the same time, Marshal Xia Jun has already begun to consider whether to let this kid marry his granddaughter in advance.

Looking at Fang Xiaoyu, the future grandson-in-law, Marshal Xia Jun liked it more and more, and he secretly praised his daughter-in-law for her vision. Fang Xiaoyu was a little dumbfounded and calculating the income from patents, this national weapon refitting is a big deal, even if a gun earns ten yuan, he can get three yuan, and the regular army alone in the country has more than 1.5 million, if he changes all the outfits, he can effortlessly earn more than 4 million yuan, even if he can't change clothes together, it is very considerable to be able to get so much money in a few years.

Fang Xiaoyu secretly wondered in his heart, whether to contact the royal family, the royal family controlled the imperial navy and shipyards, if he drew a drawing of an ironclad ship for them, would he make a lot of money, and he thought that he couldn't design a steam engine, if there was no steam engine ironclad, there would be no way to talk about it.

Just when Fang Xiaoyu was thinking about how to sell patents to make money, Marshal Xia Jun smiled and said: "Xiaoyu, I am very interested in your training methods, write a training plan for me tomorrow." After speaking, he paused and said, "You should be a staff officer in my staff now." Fang Xiaoyu promised to complain secretly, originally he thought that he should be able to hang an idle post at such a young age, who would have thought that Marshal Xia Jun would value himself so much, and directly transferred himself to the General Staff, if he was in the General Staff every day, how would he take care of Lanting Villa, and how would he start his own industrial development plan.

Marshal Xia Jun said to Xia Ziqing behind him: "Ziqing, you send him back first, and tomorrow you will directly take him to the General Staff." Xia Ziqing stood upright: "Yes, marshal." Then he left the Xia family's military workshop, and when he saw Fang Xiaoyu going out, Zhang Peiyun walked forward with a smile and whispered: "Little brother, you will come and sit often in the future." ”

Fang Xiaoyu said with a smile: "Chief Engineer Zhang is polite, I must come often, maybe there are things that need your help in the future." Zhang Peiyun immediately promised: "No problem, I will definitely help if there is anything." Fang Xiaoyu smiled: "It's not a big deal, it's just to make some small things." Zhang Peiyun said: "No problem, I have fitters, carpenters, blacksmiths, and gunsmiths here, and I can do anything." Fang Xiaoyu thanked him again and again and turned to leave.

Xia Ziqing led Fang Xiaoyu into the carriage again, and after seeing Fang Xiaoyu's ability to make guns, Xia Ziqing's attitude towards him was much softer. Seeing Fang Xiaoyu get into the car, he began to frown and think about things, so he replied, "Second Lieutenant Fang, do you have anything to do?" Hearing Xia Ziqing ask him, Fang Xiaoyu turned his head and said, "It's nothing, it's something at home." ”

Then Fang Xiaoyu realized that Xia Ziqing was Marshal Xia Jun's personal adjutant, and he would definitely be able to speak in front of the marshal. If you complain to him about your difficulties and let him pass them on to the marshal, with Marshal Xia's fancy for himself, maybe he will give himself a concession. While Fang Xiaoyu was thinking about how to say it, Xia Ziqing asked again: "If there is any difficulty, maybe Marshal Xia can help." Xia Ziqing knew that this little lieutenant was from the Fang family, so he didn't dare to say that he would help, but said that he would let Marshal Xia help.