Reborn South Africa as a police officer

Chapter 325 Mortar

Rock had previously planned to open a canning factory, but before he could implement it, Stoudemire took the lead.

Speaking of this aspect, Rhodesia has advantages that Johannesburg and Nyasaland do not have. The farms in Johannesburg and Nyasaland are both growing and growing. Apart from potatoes, they have no spare capacity to provide external food supply. Rhodesia is different. Although Rhodesia under Cecil Rhodes failed to develop further, the farms in Rhodesia are still quite good. Rhodesia used to be able to supply Nyasaland , Now Stoudemire is just processing the food that was originally used to supply Nyasaland into canned food for sale.

Rhodesia now has several canneries. Luncheon meat is only one of the products of the Rhodesia cannery. In addition to luncheon meat, Rhodesia also sells canned soybeans, canned fruits, and canned fish. Stoudemire even planned to set up a canning factory next to Lake Niassa to process the aquatic products in Lake Niassa into cans for sale.

In terms of external expansion, Stoudemire really can't do it, but Stoudemire still has a hand in business, and Cecil Rhodes' training of Stoudemire for so many years is not in vain.

Nyasaland is the largest dumping place of canned food in Rhodesia. Including luncheon meat, which is despised by the Nyasaland militia, all canned products sell well in Nyasaland. Stoudemire is quite interesting. Yes, the price for Nyasaland is not high, because the cannery uses a large number of Zulus, so it is actually cheaper than Rock directly setting up a factory to produce, so Rock stopped tossing and took this The industry is left to Stoudemire.

"Canned food is just a small business that doesn't make much money. If Stoudemire wants to do it, let him do it. Let's focus on heavy industry, steel mills, engines, shipyards and tractor factories, as well as our arsenal, whichever one we want , the profit is much higher than that of canned food." Rock can think about it, Nyasaland eats meat, and always wants Rhodesia to drink soup, otherwise the brothers will not have to do it in the future.

"Everything else is easy to say, mainly the arsenal. This is a money-losing product. We can only produce Martini Henry rifles and Mauser pistols. The Yao people have no money to buy them. If they produce one, they will pay for one. It’s hard to make money!” Duncan was very worried, but in fact, the arsenal is now in a state of semi-stop production, and the Yao people’s ability to pay is not enough, and they don’t give money for buying things, so it’s impossible to lose money all the time.

In the past, the Nyasaland Arsenal could only produce Martini Henry rifles. After the war in Portuguese East Africa, the Yao people’s demand for weapons was greatly reduced. Nyasaland could not be hanged on a tree, so Nyasaland The arsenal purchased the patent of the Luger P08 pistol from the German Weapons and Ammunition Arsenal, and produced the Ruger P08 as police equipment and defensive pistols for soldiers.

Compared with Mauser pistols and Kimberley revolvers, the Ruger P08 pistol has many disadvantages such as extremely high production process requirements, complex structure, more parts, and higher cost.

The reason why Rock chose the Ruger P08 pistol as the first standard pistol in Nyasaland is mainly to train more skilled workers through the production of the Ruger P08 pistol, and provide workers with the technical level for the next step of the arsenal. Prepare for expansion.

Of course, it is also for this reason that the cost of the Ruger P08 pistol produced by the Nyasaland Arsenal is extremely high. Now the monthly output of the Ruger P08 pistol is still very low, and it is still far from the level of foreign sales. Far.

"Don't focus on this trivial matter. The arsenal would rather lose money than stop production. It is to train more qualified workers. At this stage, you don't have to worry about losing money." Rock is not afraid of losing money, as long as more skilled workers are trained now, The money lost now will be earned back ten times and a hundred times in the future.

Now that Rock has mentioned this, Duncan has no reason to object. The arsenal has not always been losing money. Although the Martini Henry produced by the arsenal cannot be sold, the explosives produced by the arsenal are still very easy to sell. After all, there are many mines in the Transvaal and Nyasaland, and there is a great demand for explosives. Now the Nyasaland Arsenal has sold explosives to the Transvaal, and the sales are still good.

"Let Stanley Warren work harder. It's best to make the big eight as soon as possible. With the big eight, our arsenal will be on the right track." Rock doesn't even look down on Lee Enfield, even if he does it now If the AK47 is not produced, at least the big eight must be produced, so that Nyasaland Armory can be regarded as a real fist product.

The "Big Eight" is the famous M1 Garand, another time and space, the M1 Garand will not appear until 1932, this time and space will not take so long, Rock purchased the Ruger P08 patent from the German Arms and Ammunition Arsenal At that time, a few engineers were recruited by chance, and Stanley Warren was one of the best.

When it comes to designing guns, it’s actually not that complicated. It’s just a matter of concept change. The current objective technical level is already very good. Rock just introduced the future development trend of pistols and rifles to Stanley Warren, and then specifically The design is handed over to professionals, and I believe Stanley Warren can give Rock a satisfactory answer.

"Stanley has already made a sample gun, but now the sample gun is very controversial. The Lee Enfield we are allotted is still using a magazine divider, and the big eight is a continuous-fire weapon, which fires bullets faster. And the cost is higher, and now many people are doubting whether we need to equip a repeating rifle like a large eight-grain rifle." Duncan raised a very realistic question.

As far as the current world is concerned, the emergence of the Big Eight is too far ahead.

During the Boer War, the British army had just been equipped with Lee Enfield with a capacity of [-] rounds. This was considered a waste by many people, even high-level military officials, so the British army was equipped with more A nondescript thing like a magazine stop, which forced Lee Enfield into a single-shot rifle.

After Rock got Lee Enfield, he immediately threw Lee Enfield's magazine divider into the garbage dump. This thing is definitely an anti-human design, and Rock hates it deeply.

Rock thinks so, but it doesn't mean that other people think the same way, especially under the premise that the troops are already equipped with Maxim heavy machine guns, whether it is necessary to increase the firepower for the soldiers has become the focus of debate.

A very important reason for the opponents is that the more automatic weapons the troops are equipped with, the greater the pressure on logistics. The Maxim heavy machine guns currently equipped in the Nyasaland troops are already biased compared to other countries in the world. Many, if the individual firepower is increased, it will definitely be a disaster for logistics.

"Have you made a sample gun? Why didn't you say it earlier!" Rock immediately wanted to get up and take a look. With the big eight, even if the logistical pressure was great, Rock would have to completely change the equipment for the troops. Others didn't know the big eight Rock knows the value of it all too well.

In the Second World War, the U.S. troops who used the big eight grains killed all directions. On the battlefield, two big eight grains can suppress the enemy of a squad. The bolt-action rifle is scum in front of the semi-automatic big eight grains.

Oh, not the Yao family.

"It hasn't been finalized yet. It's just a prototype gun. The failure rate is too high. Stanley still needs to improve." Duncan explained why he didn't report the news to Rock.

"Very good. We need to continue to improve. Don't listen to the nonsense of those who oppose it. The troops are equipped with big eight grains, and the firepower can reach a new level. Now our troops can't do without Maxim everywhere. Change, so not only the big eight grains, but also the automatic rifle used by the squad should hurry up to study. We Nyasaland people are too small to afford to fight the enemy on the battlefield, so we have to use our industrial capabilities to bury the enemy. "Rock firmly insists on the supremacy of firepower, and if things can be done with money, Rock will never use people.

If Stoudemire was here, Stoudemire would definitely roll his eyes now.

Nyasaland, which is backed by Chinese, is still short of manpower. What about Rhodesia and Transvaal, which are unable to seek immigration?

"Speaking of industrial capabilities, when will our arsenal be able to produce artillery?" Anton has higher requirements and never forgets artillery.

Now Nyasaland's enemies are okay and not too strong. Although Nyasaland's troops have no artillery, Nyasaland's enemies also have no artillery, so it is still possible to fight.

Although Anton doesn't know what Rock's ultimate goal is, but as Rock's most trusted person, Anton knows that Rock's ideals are definitely not limited to Africa, so Nyasaland's future enemies will definitely have powerful forces. In terms of firepower, Nyasaland has to hurry up.

Hearing Anton's words, Duncan rolled his eyes directly. He didn't even understand the rifle, but Anton wanted artillery. Even if Stanley Warren was forced to death, Stanley Warren couldn't get the artillery now.

Compared with individual weapons, the structure of artillery is too complicated. Designing a kind of artillery is not a task that can be completed by two people. It requires the precise cooperation of a team to gain something from artillery. Many famous gun masters in history , All of them are designed for individual weapons. In terms of artillery, few people can leave their names.

"Don't worry about the artillery. We still need time. Let's finish the individual weapons first." Rock knew that it would be very difficult for Nyasaland to develop conventional artillery to compete with European countries, but Rock also has backers. , the development of conventional artillery is not enough, and Roque still has a trump card in his hand, which is the mortar.

Compared with conventional artillery, the structure of the mortar is much simpler. In other words, the difficulty of the mortar is mainly in the shells, and the mortar itself has no technical difficulty.

Calculating the time, the Russo-Japanese War is about to start, so Rock must hurry up, maybe, Nyasaland can still make a fortune by catching up with the Russo-Japanese War.

(End of this chapter)