I want to be emperor

Kara City, the capital of the West African Kingdom, is in central and western Africa.

Chen Jingyun, with his bald head, stood on the large balcony of his small palace, with Kara Port outside.

Although the current scale of Kara Port is still small, with a city population of only more than 20,000, it is already pretty good in this part of Africa. More importantly, this port city belongs to Chen Jingyun.

However, since the game of founding a country many years ago, Chen Jingyun and a group of people made great efforts to gain recognition and subsequent support from the empire. Only then did they establish the West African Kingdom and develop the Port of Kara. City.

Recalling the many previous efforts, Chen Jingyun couldn't help but sigh. He had paid too much along the way.

At that time, in order to obtain the official recognition of the empire and accept it as a vassal state, Chen Jingyun commanded the army of the West African Kingdom to fight on the front line of the African interior for a long time, cooperating with the Chu army in the Gold Coast area to attack the African tribes in the interior.

This process is not pleasant.

Although there are not many combat casualties, the non-combat casualties caused by the harsh climate environment are very terrifying. Over the years, the West African Kingdom has suffered at least more than 5,000 casualties on the front line.

Although the casualties of more than 5,000 people are basically European immigrant soldiers, and there are not many real Chu people, the lack of comparison does not mean that there are none. Even one of Chen Jingyun's cousins ​​is fighting on the front line and is infected with the disease. Malaria almost cost me half my life.

But it is this kind of effort, coupled with the fact that the fighting is really good... Compared to the Chu army, even the foreign legions in the Chu army, the army in the West African Kingdom are much more flexible than ordinary armies because they are mercenaries. .

Once this method is flexible, the battle will be smoother.

Within a few years, the West African Kingdom opened up a lot of territory for the Chu Empire, even seized many gold mines, and sent hundreds of thousands of free laborers to the plantations of large agricultural companies.

Relying on these efforts and with the advice of local administrative officials on the Gold Coast and some heads of agricultural development companies, the empire finally recognized the legitimacy of the West African kingdom established by Chen Jingyun and accepted it as a vassal state.

In the following years, various efforts were made, such as actively influencing the empire's global economic policies, extensively planting and supplying cotton, coffee, cocoa beans and other economic crops to the empire. At the same time, it also provided supplies to the passing Chu ocean-going merchant ships in Kara Port. Various supplies.

After several years of hard work, the West African Kingdom was recognized by the empire's high-level officials, and thus obtained a diplomatic status similar to that of the American and Song Kingdom in South America. How is this status reflected?

In fact, it is very simple. You can see it from military procurement.

The Dachu Empire allowed the West African Kingdom to purchase single-shot rifles such as Type 18 and Type 19 rifles, as well as some types of breech-loading rifled artillery... There is no need to rely on the West African security company to purchase militia rifles in disguise as in the past. Rifles, but single-shot rifles and breech-loading rifled artillery can be purchased openly.

However, not many vassal states can enjoy this treatment. Those who can enjoy it are all established by the early Chu people, who have made great contributions to the empire's overseas expansion, and who have very positive attitudes. country.

In addition, in terms of industrial production equipment, the West African Kingdom, like a few vassal states such as the Kingdom of America and Song Dynasty, can purchase some insensitive industrial equipment for the construction of factories and so on according to the standards of the administrative territory of the Chu Empire.

At this time, the West African Kingdom was actually recognized by the empire in a real sense.

But even so, the West African Kingdom does not mean that it can do whatever it wants.

For example, the defense industry...Whether you want it or not, the empire won't let you do it...

In terms of weapons and equipment, the Chu Empire's technical blockade was very strict. Not to mention these vassal states with better treatment, arsenals were not allowed even in the administrative territory of the empire itself.

All defense industries must be established in directly administered territories.

There are also some high-tech industries that cannot be developed, because some high-tech equipment empires are not allowed to be exported.

But for some ordinary industries, the restrictions are not so great.

Basically, the political status of the West African Kingdom and the Mesong Kingdom in the huge local system of the Chu Empire was actually similar to that of administrative territories, except that they were more independent.

Taking advantage of this kind of treatment, Chen Jingyun also purchased equipment and invited engineers to set up some factories in the West African Kingdom over the years.

The scale is not big, but it is important.

For example, there is a small steel building... Their West African kingdom also has coal mines and iron mines, and there is basically no shortage of mining labor... There is a large amount of free labor in the interior of Africa that can be captured and used.

So there is no problem with this raw material!

Based on these, Chen Jingyun established a small-scale steel plant in Kara Port. Not to mention making more money, but it can at least meet some of the steel needs within the West African Kingdom.

In addition, he also established small machinery factories, textile factories, food factories and other small factories to make full use of some of the West African Kingdom's own resources.

For example, in textile factories, the West African Kingdom is currently a cotton exporting country. The amount of cotton grown is very large. Although most of it is used for export to earn foreign exchange, some of the cotton is used for its own use and then produces cloth for the domestic demand of the West African Kingdom and for the surrounding countries. Exported by some African tribes.

The Chu people are also reasonable and will not force you to export all the cotton... Of course, the cloth produced by the textile factory here can only be used for domestic sales and a small part can be sold in nearby Africa. Don't count on it.

It is impossible to export to the Dachu Empire...it is even impossible to export to Europe.

This is not a matter of cost or competitiveness, but if you dare to compete with the Chu State Textile Association for the European market, the Chu State Textile Association will dare to lobby the empire's top officials, and then give you a war of annihilation for the West African Kingdom.

As for the West African Kingdom itself and the tribal markets in the adjacent African region, it is because the West African Kingdom has a respectful attitude and has made great contributions to the expansion of the empire in the interior of Africa. Moreover, the market here is actually very small. At the same time, the Textile Association also needs the West African Kingdom. The major cotton-growing countries supply a large amount of cotton. The combination of these factors made the companies in the Chu State Textile Association acquiesce to this.

Otherwise, Chen Jingyun wouldn't even be able to import textile machines, let alone produce cotton cloth and sell it locally.

Several other industries basically have a similar situation, and they were all opened with the tacit approval of the Chu State.

Otherwise, not to mention other things, just an equipment import application will not be approved.

Although Chen Jingyun and other senior leaders of the West African Kingdom are somewhat dissatisfied with this, they can only keep it in their hearts... This is the way the world is. If they are not satisfied with this and take some actual resistance measures, it will cause huge imperial pressure. .

Not to mention military threats, just an economic blockade... No, just a ban on the sale of weapons and ammunition is enough to finish the West African kingdom.

This used the military version of rifled guns imported from the Chu State. Although the combat effectiveness was improved and it was extremely easy to defeat the African natives, the weaklings were also completely suppressed by the Chu State.

As long as the empire bans the sale of corresponding bullets and artillery shells, it will be enough to turn the large number of rifled guns and guns equipped by the West African Kingdom into scrap metal.

Maybe you will say that if the Chu people banned sales, then they would make their own...

Regardless of whether you can do it or not, as long as you dare to do it and are discovered by the people of Chu, it will not take long for the foreign legions to come over and destroy the entire West African Kingdom. The Chu State has always been so domineering in the field of defense industry... They have made it clear that they do not allow the vassal states to engage in advanced rifled gun manufacturing. If you dare to do so, I will destroy the country... You can What can be done?

no way!

Of course, these are all on the surface... In fact, by smuggling equipment and raw materials, and then hiding in the deep mountains and old forests of the African interior, secretly opening a small-scale arsenal, as long as they don't expose themselves, the Chu people will The probability cannot be found.

Chen Jingyun did the same thing!

In the valley next to a river in the interior of the West African Kingdom, there is a small arsenal.

This small arsenal not only has equipment dedicated to the production of guns and bullets, but also a set of steel smelting equipment for manufacturing high-quality gun materials.

With such a set of equipment, they can use the crude steel produced by the Cala City Steel Plant as raw materials, and then perform deep processing to obtain gun barrel materials and gun barrel materials... without having to deal with them secretly with those indigenous vassal countries. Just like an arsenal, even raw materials have to be imported through smuggling.

They can solve the problem of raw materials themselves!

It’s just that the output is very low due to equipment limitations.

Even if the entire small arsenal is operating at full capacity, the annual output is estimated to be only one or two thousand single-shot rifles and a few artillery pieces...the output is very low.

There is nothing that can be done about it. After all, the equipment used is basically smuggled small equipment...the quantity is also very small, and many of them are ordinary civilian equipment that has been modified to produce guns.

It would be good if Chen Jingyun and the others could scrape together a set of production equipment, but they couldn't expect too much.

As for directly purchasing large-scale professional equipment for gun production, it is too conspicuous, difficult to transport, and too difficult to smuggle, so it is simply unrealistic.

The smuggling of these civilian equipment is more troublesome. Slightly larger equipment is actually disassembled in advance during transportation to avoid inspection, and then transported separately, and then assembled again after being transported to the West African Kingdom.

During transportation, these parts are often labeled as other legally imported equipment parts, such as those used in textile machines and small machinery factories.

Of course, there are also some equipment or parts that cannot be labeled as legal equipment parts because they are special, so they can only be smuggled in secretly. Some are more conspicuous, and you can tell at a glance that they are equipment used to make weapons. , they even disembarked in Maputo or South Africa, and then smuggled them overland, and then transported them across most of Africa.

So despite the small scale and low output of this arsenal, it is actually not easy to build.

Chen Jingyun spent so much effort to build a hidden arsenal, on the one hand, to avoid being stuck at the critical moment, and on the other hand, it was also to save money...

The weapons exported by the Chu State are too expensive...the exported Type 18 rifles cost more than 30 Chu Yuan...it's as bad as grandma's house!

Even in the years when this crap thing first came out, the new purchase price was only more than ten yuan. Twenty years later, the technical cost has already been reduced, but the price has increased to more than thirty yuan. Yuan.

Even if guns are expensive, ammunition is even more expensive... 11mm black powder bullets, 70mm infantry gun shells, 75mm field gun shells, etc., are all very expensive.

How expensive is it?

It was so expensive that Chen Jingyun even spent an extremely expensive price to smuggle equipment and hire some engineers who were desperate for money to guide production at super high prices. At the same time, because the output was small and the flat cost was very high, the Type 18 produced by the West African Kingdom Rifles, bullets, etc. are almost half cheaper...

The African Arms Trading Company, a subsidiary of the Dachu Empire Arms Trading Company, is really too dark...

This is simply taking Chen Jingyun as the enemy!

Imported weapons are expensive, and Chen Jingyun, who is not willing to be taken advantage of, takes huge risks to build an arsenal.

Of course...even so, you have to do it secretly. The weapons and equipment currently produced are mainly imitations of Type 18 rifles and corresponding bullets. When the equipment is used, it is mixed with imported rifles and bullets to avoid being used. Chu State officials discovered it.

Chen Jingyun would not make a new gun by himself and then use it stupidly... Otherwise, when the Chu people see it, a new gun appears in the hands of the West African Kingdom's army? What would they think?

Where did this gun come from?

Did the West African Kingdom manufacture its own weapons in violation of regulations?

Therefore, the weapons and equipment produced in this arsenal cannot be messed with, they can only be copied...

In addition to imitating Type 18 rifles, they are also secretly imitating Type 25 rifles.

Type 25 rifle, this thing is actually the magazine version of the Type 18 rifle... Although this thing has a bad reputation among the regular Chu army, it was the only magazine repeating rifle that could be used in the early days. It was once produced Equipped with hundreds of thousands of them, it can be considered a typical repeating rifle in the Chu country.

Now this rifle has completed its historical mission and has been gradually withdrawn from the second-line troops. More than 10,000 Type 25 rifles have even been handed over to the Foreign Legion for replacement.

At the same time, a few vassal states established by the Chu people, such as the Kingdom of the Song Dynasty and the Kingdom of West Africa, are also striving to import this repeating rifle, and according to feedback, there is not much of a problem...

After all, these things are two generations behind the most advanced main infantry equipment of the Chu army... The current firearms technology line in the Chu Empire, from advanced to backward, is:

It uses 8mm smokeless semi-rimmed bullets to completely solve the problem of bullet jamming. It has a detachable magazine and a double-row ten-round ammunition supply for the Type rifle. At the same time, there is also a backup, which uses a five-round built-in magazine to supply bullets. Type rifle

Then there was the Type 24 powder rifle that used eight millimeter black powder flanged bullets, but there was no bullet jamming problem due to problems with the ammunition supply structure; at the same time, there was the Type 26 rifle that had many problems.

Then there are the Type 25 repeating rifles that use 11mm black powder rim bullets... and then there are the Type 18 and Type 19 single-shot rifles with 11mm bullets.

Since these Type 25 rifles have begun to be equipped for the foreign legions, it is common sense to appropriately liberalize the equipment for a few close vassal states... In principle, the empire allows the West African Kingdom, the Kingdom of the United States and the Song Dynasty and a few vassal states to purchase these A repeating rifle that uses 11mm bullets.

Of course, this is inseparable from the vigorous promotion of Hebei Arms Company, the manufacturer of the Type 25 rifle... After the disastrous defeats of the Type 26 rifle and the Type 28 rifle, Hebei Arms Company's rifle business plummeted, and this side continues While improving the Type 28 rifle to compete for orders, they are also promoting the export of the Type 25 rifle.

In fact, there are not many export options for this kind of rifle. There are only a few vassal states established by the Chu people such as the Kingdom of West Africa and the Kingdom of the Song Dynasty. ...But even if there are not many options, the estimated purchase quantity of these vassal countries may exceed 100,000, which is also a huge order supplement for Hebei Arms Company.

Therefore, driven by the efforts of many parties, the export of the Type 25 rifle has become a foregone conclusion, and the rest is just a matter of wrangling various details.

But again...the weapons exported by Chu State are expensive!

It's just a Type 18 rifle with a thrust-type magazine added, but the price has soared to more than fifty yuan... Even though the West African Kingdom exports a large amount of agricultural products, it is also a relatively wealthy vassal country. I also felt the pressure.

If the West African Kingdom secretly imitates and produces the Type 25 rifle, although the cost is already very high, it will only cost more than 20 yuan at most, which is only twice the import price!

The price gap between the two is too big, so the senior officials of the West African Kingdom want to import some, secretly imitate some themselves, and mix them together to reduce costs.

It's just that even if the imitation has been successfully completed and small-scale production has begun, the imitation Type 25 rifle can still only stay in the warehouse and cannot be taken out and equipped now.

Because Chu State has not yet released the export of Type 25 rifles, the West African Kingdom has not received the first batch of ordered Type 25 rifles.

Only after the export was opened and the ordered Type 25 rifles were obtained, could the West African Kingdom secretly take out its own imitation Type 25 rifles and mix them for use.

If we take out a bunch of imitation Type 25 rifles now, it will cause a lot of trouble.

Secretly setting up arsenals, counterfeiting weapons and even artillery, although this is possible for the West African Kingdom, it is only limited here... and many things that go further cannot be done.

For example, shipbuilding... In fact, Chen Jingyun has also built a shipyard, but until now, he still cannot build large steel steamships independently, and can only build some offshore boats.

Shipbuilding is more difficult. Since many of the equipment are not exported by the Chu people, it is very, very difficult for a small vassal country like the West African Kingdom to engage in shipbuilding.

And don't get me wrong...the shipbuilding in the West African Kingdom does not mean that it makes all the parts and components by itself and builds a steamship independently. In fact, the West African Kingdom's shipyard is just an assembly shipyard, and the core steam engines are imported.

But even for an assembly shipyard, it is not that easy.