I started with the Shinsengumi in Bakumatsu

Chapter 178 Military Factory

The emperor's wedding was a lively event for several days, and the citizens were still immersed in celebrations.

Invisibly high up, the fight began again.

In the entire East Asian cultural circle, the emperor's marriage means that the emperor has come of age and can govern.

Ohara Shigenori immediately led a group of ministers to write a letter that the country should be led by the emperor, and Prime Minister Yagyu Nozomi should inform the emperor of all government affairs.

Eto Shinpei, Osu Tadayoshi and other shogunate ministers collectively lost their voices. Sakuma Shoyama, Yokoi Kokusu and other ministers argued hard and confronted Ohara Shigenori and others.

Emperor Meiji looked at the quarrels among the ministers below, looking a little flustered and impatient. All he thought about was his Queen Mary, so he waved his hand and said: "Why worry about these things, wait until I finish visiting Japan with the Queen." Say it again."

Ohara Shigetori was stunned, and he shouted crazily in his heart: Your Majesty, I am here for you!
"Just retreat from the court if you have nothing to do. I still have a lot of things to prepare."

Emperor Meiji didn't wait for everyone's reaction, left a few words lightly and left.

Eto Shinpei, Kosu Tadashi and others shook their heads secretly. Although Sakuma Shoyama and others were happy, they still had worries in their hearts.

Ohara Shigenori is just the first wave of people, and there will be others.

The cause of this incident was not Ohara Shigetoku, but power.

When the emperor came of age, it was justifiable for him to rule personally. Those who opposed the Yagyu faction would gain support as long as they grasped this principle. This was an irreconcilable contradiction.

If this was in the Qing Dynasty, Yagyu would definitely be liquidated, but now it is Japan.

The emperor actually came to power only about 300 years ago. During the Heian-kyo period, there were powerful ministers such as the Soga family and the Fujiwara family, and the five regents were all direct descendants of the Fujiwara family.

During the shogunate era, the actual power of the emperor was eclipsed, and the shogunate took power to govern the world. Although there was Emperor Go-Daigo's new military policy during the period of Ashikaga Takauji, the first shogun of the Muromachi shogunate, it was short-lived.

After that, the emperor and the court only grasped the great righteousness, which was a rubber stamp.

Until now, although Emperor Xiaoming was carried out, he actually supported the shogunate, that is, maintaining the previous status quo. This was what he did until his death.

Now that it is in the hands of Emperor Meiji, he actually doesn't care much about the political power. After all, he is only in his teens and his thinking has not completely changed. It may change in the future, but now he doesn't have so many ideas.

But the contradiction is still there, which is the source of the fight. Even Yagyu has no good solution, unless he kills the emperor and does it himself, but that would be pure suicide.

Yagyu paid no attention to such a fight. After handling the emperor's wedding, he began to arrange the honeymoon trip of the emperor and the empress.

The most important thing is the safety issue. This matter is the sole responsibility of the Metropolitan Police Department. Kondo Isamu is more concerned about it than anyone else. Yamazaki Hao, Shimada Kui, Saito and other backbones are all mobilized to coordinate actions to solve the safety problem. .

Yagyu left this matter to Isamu Kondo, who was also busy with new guns and cannons.

As early as March, a new military factory was under construction. At the same time, Yagyu purchased the latest machinery from the United States to set up a production line.

Judging from the current level of technology, it is not difficult to manufacture a breech-loading gun, and the engineers in the military factory are not ignorant people.

In 1865, Yagyu had a honeymoon period with Britain and France by opening the port and concessioning tariffs. He invited British and French engineers to build the first armaments factory.

His purpose at that time was to create a breech-loading gun.

Breech-loading guns have appeared in Europe for decades. At first, they had too many problems and were not favored by people. With the advancement of technology, the main problems of breech-loading guns were overcome one by one, and they came into people's sight.

What really gave rise to the rise of breech-loading guns was the American Civil War and the Franco-Prussian War, which made all countries realize the importance of breech-loading guns.

Britain and France successively developed new breech-loading guns, but the British chose to change the Enfield rifle to a breech-loading gun because the replacement cost was too high.

This kind of gun uses a rotating bolt, the bolt is a bit large, and the recoil is also large, but it is significantly faster than the front-loaded rifled gun in terms of rate of fire.What Yagyu wants to transform is this kind of bolt-action rifle. The large recoil is not a problem. It is just a first-generation experimental product. If it is not easy to use, it will be sold to other backward countries.

With this first-generation product, Japan can develop its own rifle.

In the Luonan Industrial Zone, the director of the factory, Shintaro Hayashi, was leading a group of people to greet Yagyu, including Naosuke Kawasaki.

Next to Shintaro Hayashi, there are several blond and blue-eyed engineers. They are the chief engineers of the military factory, and Naosuke Kawasaki serves as their assistant.

These engineers are from the UK and France respectively. They were recruited by Yagyu at a large price and are now Japanese citizens.

The leader was British engineer Johnson. He was a retired lieutenant in the British Army and became an ordnance engineer. He was hired to Japan. Yagyu personally received him.

Johnson's treatment is pretty good, but not so good in China. He only has a monthly salary of a few dozen pounds, and he is not from a wealthy family. He came to Japan just to earn support for his wife and children.

A few months later, Yagyu discovered that Johnson's skills were very good, and he immediately offered a high-ranking official and generous salary to invite Johnson to stay in Japan.

Johnson is now the chief engineer, with a monthly salary of 600 yen, plus some subsidies, which is almost [-] yen, equivalent to more than [-] pounds.

This monthly salary is enough for Johnson to be excited.

But Yagyu gave him more than just a little, he also gave him an official position. Now he is also a technical official in the new government.

This kind of treatment was much better than in the UK. He immediately brought his children and wife to Japan and became Japanese.

The French engineer Luthers, who was similar to Johnson, was also retained by Yagyu's high-ranking officials. He married a wife in Japan and had a one-year-old child.

When Yagyu saw Johnson and Luthers, he greeted him warmly: "Mr. Johnson, Mr. Luthers, everyone has worked hard. Please tell me about the progress of the matter."

Johnson was responsible for manufacturing modified Enfield rifles. He immediately introduced: "Mr. Prime Minister, according to the current machines and materials, it is not difficult to convert the Enfield rifle into a breech-loading gun. We only need to make some modifications to the back of the barrel, and then Just add a bolt chamber.

Of course, I have also considered the matter of adding more magazines proposed by Mr. Prime Minister, and I have already been studying some technical issues related to bullet filling and cartridge case ejection. "

Hearing this, Yagyu nodded and said, "Do you have a sample of the modified Enfield rifle? Have you tested it?"

Shintaro Hayashi replied: "Your Majesty Prime Minister, the newly modified Enfield breech-loading rifle has been tested. The recoil is a bit strong and makes people's shoulders hurt, but the rate of fire is very fast. It can fire seven to nine rounds in one minute.

We tested hundreds of rounds of bullets, and there was no jamming or explosion in the barrel. However, high-intensity shooting affected the barrel and accuracy. "

"It's not a big deal, as long as it works."

Yagyu comforted him casually.

He turned to look serious and said: "This kind of modified gun can be sold to Vietnam and other countries. What we need to use must be reliable products. Therefore, Mr. Johnson, your task is to produce our Japanese breech-loading rifle."

Johnson immediately promised: "Don't worry, Mr. Prime Minister, I will definitely make a rifle that satisfies you."

"I believe you, Mr. Johnson."

Yagyu smiled, responded, and then asked Luthers: "Mr. Luthers, where are our cannons?"

Luther said with some guilt: "Mr. Prime Minister, I have worked very hard, but the progress of the cannon is a bit slow. After all, you used new gunpowder. I need time to calculate and experiment."

Yagyu didn't blame Luther too much. After all, the previous cannons were all black powder, and Japan had a newly developed maroon gunpowder, which was very powerful and required longer and larger cannons. The previous artillery data was of little use. , you have to explore slowly by yourself.

Of course Liu Sheng knew that this matter should not be rushed, so he could only comfort them with a few words.

(End of this chapter)