I'm playing whack-a-mole in Siberia

Chapter 197 This year’s gift to the Tsar is here
  When Mikhail first arrived in Vladivostok, Stark did give Mikhail a lot of help.

Most of the wood currently used for shipbuilding at the Vladivostok Shipyard was cut down by the sailors of the Siberian Fleet.

But George also gave Stark a lot in return. Not only did he help Stark become the commander of the Siberian Fleet, but in Vladivostok, Stark received the highest level of bonuses and benefits.

If Stark asks George in the right way, like making money or something like that.

Then George will not be stingy, and it is not impossible to bring Stark with him when making money.

It is too easy for George to make money. Stark can get a share of the timber and coal mine sales in Vladivostok.

Even the logistics supply of the Siberian fleet has a lot to write about.

Among countless choices, Stark chose the worst one.

Then don't blame George for eradicating the roots.

George's telegram was not sent to Nicholas, but directly to Yasan.

The content of the telegram was not extortion from Stark, but a truthful report on the status of the Siberian fleet.

But even if he just reported it truthfully, Yasan felt that George was trying to smear him.

The situation in the Siberian fleet is very serious. Compared with deceiving superiors and concealing inferiors, deducting military pay, falsely reporting military expenses, and reselling ordnance, sending sailors to cut wood to make money is nothing at all.

St. Petersburg's response was also very fast. Just after the New Year, Stark was transferred back to St. Petersburg, and Amur Governor Korv temporarily succeeded Stark as commander of the Siberian Fleet.

"George, why don't you just do it yourself? Why bother?"

Korff himself is applying to be transferred out of Amur, and he does not want to concurrently serve as the commander of the Siberian Fleet.

Of the three major fleets of the Russian Empire, the situation of the Siberian Fleet is the worst. Not only do they have few warships, but they are all wooden-hulled ships, not even an iron ship. They are even worse than the Qing Empire.

The "Dingyuan" and "Zhenyuan" purchased by the Qing Empire from the German Volcan Shipyard last year both have a full load displacement of more than 7500 tons. The data in all aspects are very close to the data of the "Saxony" class battleships equipped by the German Navy. They are well-deserved Asia's largest ship.

The new cutting-edge warships built by the Russian Empire give priority to replenishing the Baltic Fleet and Black Sea Fleet. The status of the Siberian Fleet is not even as good as that of a stepmother. In Korv's words, it was raised by a special cousin.

"His Majesty's appointment of you as the commander of the Siberian Fleet is a sign of trust in you. You should shoulder the heavy responsibility bravely."

George is neither yin nor yang.

If Korff serves as his governor honestly and cooperates with George's work wholeheartedly, then George will not treat Korff badly and will accept Korff into George's inner circle sooner or later.

George knew Korff's little thoughts very clearly. After all, Korff's contact with St. Petersburg also had to go through the Vladivostok Telegraph Office.

Why are you so pessimistic about Amur's future if you don't work well as your governor and worry about being transferred away every day?

Do you look down on George so much?

It's going to rain, and my mother is going to get married.

Just leave, anyway, the solid camp and the flowing soldiers are waiting for Nicholas to become the tsar. These governors, commanders, etc., sooner or later they will all belong to George.

Only after receiving the transfer order did Stark realize his regret. He wanted to see George, but George did not allow him to meet him.

This is not because George does not show respect, but because the Vladivostok Arsenal has developed a hydraulic device that can be used on artillery. George went to the arsenal to inspect, but was not at Yuriev Palace at all.

It's not R&D, it's just production.

This device was invented by the German Hausenne in 1879, and Hausenne later applied for a patent for the device.

Hausenne marketed his invention to the German Army, but it was not adopted by the German Army.

The Vladivostok Machinery Factory hired people from Germany last year (1886) and hired an artillery designer. The artillery designer happened to know this device, so he started trial production at the Vladivostok Arsenal.

The artillery of this period was all retractable. The barrel and the gun mount were welded together. After the gun was fired, the gun mount would move backward as a whole, thus affecting accuracy and speed.

Small-caliber artillery is okay, but if it is a large-caliber artillery, even a skilled gun crew will take about 10 minutes to fire one shot.

By applying a hydraulic device to the artillery, the rack-mounted gun withdrawal will become a tube-type gun withdrawal, and the firing time will be greatly shortened.

The famous French Miss No. 15 is a tube-fired cannon with a normal rate of fire of 30 rounds/min and a maximum rate of fire of rounds/min.

Miss Qiwu's artillery shells are fixed-type artillery shells, so the firing speed can be so fast.

If it is a separate large-caliber artillery shell, the rate of fire of the artillery can also be greatly increased.

"With the adoption of hydraulic devices, our artillery can fire at a rate of ten rounds per minute. This is a huge improvement and will change wars around the world."

Ye Luoxin was extremely excited. Although the Cossacks had unparalleled combat power, artillery was the real god of war.

“Send someone to Germany and buy Hausenne’s patent—no, invite Hausenne here and ask him to be the chief designer of the artillery.”

George does not value patents, but wants to monopolize this technology.

After the French developed Miss Seventy-Five, they strictly blocked the related technology from Germany. Later, in World War I, the Germans suffered greatly from Miss Seventy-Five.

The French actually reached a dead end and were too obsessed with the rate of fire of the Miss 75, thus neglecting the development of large-caliber artillery.

The larger the caliber of the artillery, the greater the power and the farther the range.

Miss Qiwu is the M1897 75mm field gun. The Italian gun mentioned by Li Yunlong has an effective range of only 8500 meters.

The range of large-caliber artillery is often more than ten kilometers, or even twenty or thirty kilometers. Therefore, although Miss Qiwu has brought certain advantages to the French army, it has not been enough to change the shape of the battlefield. George will certainly not ignore the role of large-caliber artillery.

The Empire has nationalized the Obukhov Steel Plant, so the technology of large-caliber artillery is not a problem for the Vladivostok Arsenal.

George didn't have to build warships either.

As long as all the artillery on the Vladivostok fort is replaced with barrel-retractable large-caliber fortress guns, anyone who dares to attack Vladivostok will be beaten to death.

Of course, George would not ignore the confidentiality of technology, so George immediately ordered that all those who knew about the matter be sent to Yuriev to work in the Artillery Design Bureau.

It doesn't matter if there is no artillery design bureau unit.

From now on, there is.

This artillery was not wasted. George was going back to St. Petersburg in the spring, so he took this artillery as a gift to the Tsar and Nicholas.

"So, we still have to put up with the damn Krupp—"

Ye Luoxin was very disappointed. He originally thought that with the new artillery, Fu Tuan's combat effectiveness would be further improved.

I didn't expect there would be so much trouble.

A change of clothes is nowhere in sight.

"What can we expect from artillery with a caliber of tens of millimeters? Fu Tuan's artillery must have a caliber of at least 120 millimeters."

Compared with Ye Luoxin, George is a complete winner with firepower.

There are many Russians, but they cannot be wasted.

As long as the problem can be solved with artillery shells, George will not use the crowd tactics.

Small-caliber artillery of tens of millimeters can be completely replaced by mortars.

Compared with small-caliber artillery that weighs more than a ton, isn't it nice to have a mortar that only weighs a few dozen kilograms with its barrel and mount?
  Although the steel production in Vladivostok is getting higher and higher, there are more and more places where steel is used, so we can save where we can.

"The 120mm must be at the battle level to be used -"

Ye Luoxin was not surprised, only frightened.

If George is willing, he can even equip the 120mm artillery to the company level, but then the Fu Tuan will not be infantry, but artillery.

It is also a heavy artillery unit that can only be used at the campaign level.

Other legions in the Russian Empire do not have artillery at all. Only the Oak and Talisman regiments in the entire empire have artillery.

"It's useless now, but it will be useful in the future."

George was not in a hurry. Anyway, in the past ten years, even if Fu Tuan was equipped with 120 mm caliber artillery, it would not be used.

Mortars are currently under development.

However, the pistol requested by George has already made some progress.

George's definition of a pistol is very clear. The effective range is about 50 meters, and the power does not need to be too high. A pistol that can kill an elephant is useless most of the time. It is enough to scare people at close range.

Really, the point of a pistol is not to kill the enemy, but to make the enemy afraid.

If you want a powerful weapon, you can choose a double-barreled shotgun.

The engineers at the arsenal were very reliable. According to George's requirements, they produced a revolver that basically met George's requirements.

Different from the silly, thick and black No. 3.

The pistol developed by the arsenal, including the barrel, is only 182 mm in length, weighs only 800 grams, has an ammunition capacity of six rounds, a thickened barrel, and a fixed rear sight.

Although the shooting range required by George was only 50 meters, the engineers at the arsenal felt that the small cannon with a shooting range of only 50 meters was no more than a toy and would not work as it should.

So engineers at the arsenal developed a new 9mm bullet for this pistol.

Although the caliber of the bullet is smaller, it is about the same power as the No. 11 mm caliber bullet.

"It's very good. We will continue to improve on this basis. The next step is to give this pistol more added value."

George has high requirements. Such a compact, powerful revolver with huge room for improvement will become the future flagship product of the Vladivostok Arsenal.

Since it is a flagship product, we must find ways to enrich the product line and increase production.

As output increases, costs will be significantly reduced and profits will be higher.

Ye Luoxin is not very interested in pistols. For the army, pistols are just self-defense weapons.

George didn't think so.

Although each soldier has a rifle, the rifle is too long and heavy, making it inconvenient to carry. Currently, the only self-defense weapon the Fu Tuan soldiers have is the multifunctional tactical knife.

George hopes that every soldier in Fu Tuan will be equipped with a revolver.

Even if they are asked to pay for it themselves, at least they can have an extra layer of protection for themselves.

(End of this chapter)