The Hanyang Arsenal launched a series of light weapons and equipment, including water-cooled heavy machine guns and squad light machine guns, in addition to new standard rifles. At the beginning of the construction of the arsenal, Huang Ke invested in the construction of two arsenals, one is the Hanyang Arsenal, which mainly develops light weapons; Another factory, Gongxian in Henan, was mainly engaged in weapons such as artillery and infantry grenadiers.

Huang Ke does not intend to engage in the military industrial competition system of the capitalist countries, although it is conducive to the development and production of weapons, but at the present stage it is too time-consuming and labor-intensive, and in addition, the investment in the arsenal is large, the return cycle is long, and it is most suitable for the state to run it, and at the same time, the special division of labor can give full play to their respective strengths and promote production as quickly as possible.

Since the Northern Expedition, the Gongxian Arsenal and the Hanyang Arsenal have received a large amount of capital and talent input, and the level of research and development has been greatly improved. Lean and skilled German workers and a large number of Chinese military workers who graduated from technical schools also ensured the production efficiency of the two arsenals.

Now, the scale of the two arsenals has expanded several times, and the production efficiency has increased year by year. Gong County relocated some of its branches to nearby Luoyang, and the Hanyang Arsenal was even connected to the nearby Hanyang Iron and Steel Plant, forming a large-scale industrialized city.

At this time, the Hanyang Arsenal also gave full play to its advantages in the research of light weapons, and new rifles and light and heavy machine guns with extremely high reliability were developed one after another, and the Chinese army also took on a new look.

For the design of firearms, Huang Ke has always put forward extraordinary and unique opinions, and he will personally draw various drawings and send them to the arsenal for people to imitate according to them. Even the German researchers were amazed that the drawings sent by Huang Ke were very reasonable, and many times they exclaimed: "Why didn't I think of doing this?" ”

This time Huang Ke is no exception, at his suggestion, the Hanyang Arsenal also developed a *, originally the personnel of the arsenal wanted to imitate the flower mechanism*, but let Huang Ke veto. He proposed that the simpler the safer, the better, because in the future it will be necessary to equip it on a large scale.

To this end, Huang Ke also specially drew the structure of Stern* into drawings for the reference of the personnel of the arsenal. The wisdom of the Chinese is limitless, and it was not long before an extremely rudimentary* was designed and improved after various tests.

In the evening of the same day, Chen Lijiang, director of the Hanyang Arsenal, and some leaders of the Hanyang Iron and Steel Plant came to accompany Huang Ke to a dinner. Chen Lijiang is a mechanical expert who studied in Europe, and later taught in many universities, Li Siguang recommended him, and Huang Ke asked him to be the factory director.

Although Chen Lijiang is knowledgeable, he also understands the way of life and officialdom. When Huang Ke came, he arranged a simple Wuhan specialty as a banquet, he knew that Huang Ke and other dignitaries were tired of eating delicacies from the mountains and seas, and it was still good to taste these special game.

The Yangtze River in autumn is the time of fish fat, and the delicious pufferfish, anchovy and saury are unique, and are called the three fresh fish of the Yangtze River, and they are simply beautiful with scalded rice wine.

Everyone sat down one after another, Huang Ke was not formal, holding the hot rice wine and clinking glasses with everyone, everyone also let go, a little rice wine went down, and everyone's face was a little flushed.

Huang Ke asked about the Hanyang Arsenal and the Hanyang Iron and Steel Plant, which is the product of Sino-German cooperation, and is China's first large-scale steel plant, in addition to this plant, there is also a branch plant in Dangtu Ma'anshan, Anhui Province.

After the dinner, Huang Ke saw that it was a good day outside, so he proposed to take a walk around the factory. The director of the Hanyang Iron and Steel Plant introduced the situation of some steel plants, and said that according to the method proposed by Professor Li Siguang, a lot of high-quality ore has also been mined in the country, and the production output of the two plants has increased greatly.

Chen Lijiang told Huang Ke that the latest * has been developed, and it is also equipped with a small scale of guard troops, and he hopes that Huang Ke can go to see it tomorrow.

Huang Ke couldn't help but be shocked when he heard this, and he said that he should quickly bring this gun over, saying that he was going to try it. Chen Lijiang was in a difficult situation now, he realized that he had missed his mouth, and he knew that he should talk about it the next morning.

But now it's too late to say anything, the sample guns have been kept in the factory warehouse, not to mention that the factory is far away from here, but just arrived, and the sample gun warehouse has been closed at this point. In the middle of the night, the sample firearms warehouse can only be opened except in an emergency, and only the sample engineer can open it at this time, and cannot go out with firearms.

These are the production systems established by the Hanyang plant in accordance with some military factories in Germany, in order to ensure the integrity and confidentiality of the samples.

In this regard, Chen Lijiang, the director of the factory, has always set an example and strictly followed, but Huang Ke asked for it at this time, which ......

Huang Ke seemed to see his doubts, he smiled and said, "It's okay, I'll just tell you, it's too late, you can try again tomorrow." ”

Chen Lijiang smiled: "In the military factory, we implement some regulations on the German side, but sometimes it is a little dull. ”

"If it's out of the way, don't change the system just because of someone. Our country is either too principled or too little principled, you are right, an efficient factory should have a management charter that prohibits it. ”

After Huang Ke finished speaking, Chen Lijiang nodded.

The fourteenth boy on the side reminded: "By the way, didn't you say that you are equipped with guard troops?" Just get one from them and try it. ”

Chen Lijiang patted his head: "How did I forget this, the guards in our factory are equipped with some of these guns, and there are a few in their gun room, so I'll go and let someone bring them." ”

After a while, Chen Lijiang sent someone to bring the new-style *.

When he saw this gun, Huang Ke couldn't help but be a little surprised, this thing was too simple, and even the original Stern * that Huang Ke took was even simpler. The body of this gun is made up of a tube, and the diagonal grip and wood* make this gun extremely convenient to use at close range.

Huang Ke held the gun in his hand, walked to the shooting range, and fired a shuttle at the chest ring target 100 meters away, and the bullets flew out like a scoop, and after a while, a magazine of 30 rounds was exhausted, leaving irregular bullet holes on the target.

Chen Lijiang, director of the Hanyang Arsenal, showed Huang Ke the gun with a smile: "This gun has a simple structure, with only 52 parts in total, and most of them are machine-stamped and manufactured, which is practical and low cost, suitable for large-scale equipment." ”

"Oh?" Huang Ke smiled slightly after hearing the low cost: "How much does it cost?" ”

Chen Lijiang smiled and said, "The cost of a gun is only 8 silver dollars, which is less than half of that of an ordinary rifle. However, there is a downside to this gun. ”

"What's the bad point? Is it easy to go off? Huang Ke asked, he knew that Stern* had this problem, but if it could be improved, it would not be a problem to increase the cost a little.

Chen Lijiang shook his head and said: "This gun is reliable, but the rate of fire is too fast, although the rate of fire of 500 rounds per minute can allow soldiers to have strong firepower, but the consumption of ammunition is also amazing." ”

"I think if we fight like this, we estimate that a soldier will carry at least 500 rounds of ammunition in a fight, so we are also considering whether to reduce the rate of fire to save ammunition."

After hearing this, Huang Kehaha laughed: "Don't worry, while we are willing to consume these ammunition, we will also let the enemy taste the price they deserve, and it is not a big deal to consume more bullets, it is nothing more than spending more money." On the battlefield, more ammunition can save the lives of some soldiers, soldiers are more precious than anything else, after all, as long as there are people, there will be everything. The rate of fire does not need to be changed, and after commissioning, it will be mass-produced. ”

After Huang Ke finished speaking, he handed the gun to Chen Lijiang, and the guards and workers standing on the side felt warm in their hearts after hearing it, many of Huang Ke's ideas are to put people first, but in the eyes of the warlords in the past, the lives of the soldiers and workers at the bottom are not worth mentioning.

Putting people first in this way will naturally allow soldiers to live with dignity while enjoying their material lives.

Dignity is an unattainable term for most Chinese for thousands of years, they just want to live, whether it is a turbulent chaotic era or a healthy society, affected by feudal society for thousands of years, being able to live is already a blessing for most people, talk about dignity?

Huang Ke's thinking is naturally different from others, after all, he has been educated and influenced by his current thoughts, and he has always believed that people in the world are not just for food, clothing, shelter and transportation.

But now he doesn't have time to discuss this with these people, what he has to do is to convert these guns into combat effectiveness.

"You can equip a batch of troops with these weapons first, and I'll talk to Cui Wu when I go back, and let him select a division to debug."

Chen Lijiang nodded, "Okay." ”

"The military industry is the lifeblood of the country's army, so it is important to produce the best weapons for the fighters on the front line." After giving instructions, Huang Ke set his sights on the big chimney not far away.

It's already midnight, and the lights in the distance decorate this small industrial town. Not far away, Wuchang and Hankou also have a lot of lights, and the development of industrialization has brightened the night of the city.

The towering chimneys were standing there silently, guarding the quiet and peaceful land like watchmen.

Huang Ke knows that since the cooperation with Germany, Hanyang Iron and Steel Plant has expanded its production scale a lot, in addition to using domestic ore, it also imports high-quality iron ore from Australia and other places, and the steel output of smelted steel has increased at the same time, but also improved the quality of steel.

At present, the annual steel output of Hanyang Iron and Steel Plant and Ma'anshan Iron and Steel Plant in Dangtu County has increased year by year, and the steel output has increased several times compared with before the Northern Expedition.

Huang Ke was looking at the towering industrial chimney in the distance when a guard officer in charge of receiving and receiving telegrams walked over quickly, he walked to the side of the guard captain Fourteen Tsai, and whispered a few words before seeing Fourteen Tsai's face change greatly.

Fourteen Tsai walked up to Huang Ke, and after whispering a few words, Huang Ke's face couldn't help but become grim, and he suddenly turned around and asked, "Is the news confirmed?" ”