I'm playing whack-a-mole in Siberia

Chapter 70 Widow Making Machine
  In the morning, George still got up early and asked Nicholas to do morning exercises together.

At this time, there were already a lot of people getting up early for morning exercises. There were only three days left before the competition, and everyone was torturing themselves like crazy.

There are a total of 900 combatants in the general regiment. With four individual items and one comprehensive, theoretically 50 people can get the reward. This probability is not low.

Except for the quantifiable results of shooting, the remaining competition events are all suspenseful, and there are many people who are qualified to receive rewards.

We are all young and strong men. Who is afraid of such things as fighting and racing? If you dare to be cut off, if you dare to pull the emperor down, even if you can't beat you, you will still have to tear two pieces of your flesh. It is absolutely impossible for me to take the initiative to admit defeat.

Even when shooting, it depends on the situation. They all have two shoulders and one head. No one is less than anyone else. We will see who is the hero on the field.

Once you start torturing yourself, you can't stop.

This involves sunk costs, and I have been tormenting myself for so long. If I don’t achieve any results, I feel sorry for myself.

Seeing the boys in the general group going crazy, Nicholas and George were very happy in their hearts.

What else is there to say? With a stroke of his pen, Nicholas added a chicken drumstick to each person in the evening——

No kidding, really add chicken legs.

And add it every night.

Russian prisoners can use milk as ink, and the soldiers' food is quite good. There is more meat than vegetables, and the food is large and filling.

Nikolai's ability in coordinating supplies is unparalleled. If you need anything, just tell the regiment commander's cousin. If you need to go back to the Gatchina Palace to complete the procedures, if there is no general regiment, you can transfer it from the Guards. If it doesn't work, go to the military department to coordinate.

George then got two Gatling guns.

"What is this thing for?" Nicholas had never seen Gatlin before.

"Heavy machine gun, which can fire bullets continuously, Widow Making Machine -" George was a little disappointed. Both Gatlings were pulled by horse-drawn carriages. One of the wheels had fallen off, and the surface was covered with dust. He didn't know what it was. It came out from some nook and cranny.

"Wow, that's a cool name!" Nicholas liked the name "Widow Maker."

"Who can repair this thing?" George hoped it could still work, but if it didn't work, he would drag it back to the manor and let Igor's master and apprentice practice.

Under George's arrangement, Igor's master and apprentice are working together with Joseph to improve the Berdan II rifle.

In Joseph's words, the Berdan II rifle has too many flaws. If you only improve on the Berdan II rifle, the performance improvement will be limited. It is better to build a new one.

Although there were no large machines in George's manor, George was surprised by the craftsmanship of Igor's master and apprentice.

After Igor used only a drill press to pull out a rifled barrel by hand, George let Joseph, Igor and his apprentices free their hands and feet to work hard.

The drawings that Joseph asked for.

Buy, buy a car first, don’t wipe it if the painting is wrong, just replace it with a new one, and buy it again when it is used up.

Russia cannot produce qualified military weapons steel.

Buy, Ekaterina is from France. Whatever George needs, Ekaterina will buy it. If George asks, Ekaterina can directly buy a steel factory for George and move it there.

Well, a steel plant is still needed, but forget it in St. Petersburg. George wants to set up a steel plant in Vladivostok, which will be of great use in the future.

Economic development is inseparable from steel and oil.

Russia does not lack both of these, and to be honest, it also has the technology. The key is that no one is willing to invest.

This is the same as selling champagne.

Russia can produce steel and has the world's largest steel resource reserves and the world's second largest coal resources.

In the recent year 1881, Russia produced 47 tons of pig iron, 30 tons of raw steel, and 350 million tons of coal.

It seems like a lot, but it is far behind the world's most powerful industrial country, the United Kingdom. Britain produced 1881 million tons of pig iron, 827 million tons of raw steel, and 180 million tons of coal in 1.57.

There is potential, but development is slow. This is the current situation of Russian industry.

Like the champagne industry, Russia's steel production has also formed a complete interest chain. Anyone who wants to enter this industry will touch the cake of vested interests and be collectively besieged by vested interests.

If George wanted to enter this industry, he had to find another way.

Compared with Russia in Europe, the Far East is like a blank sheet of paper. Not to mention the vested interests, there are not even many people, and the industrial base is almost zero.

All the industrial products needed by the Far East had to be transported thousands of miles from Europe to the Far East by sea. Due to the small scale, low profits, and little money to be made, Russian businessmen were not interested, so the Far East had to rely on its own efforts.

If George builds a steel plant in Vladivostok, let alone others, he will at least get the support of the Siberian Fleet.

Vladivostok except the Siberian Fleet——

Gone!

Really gone!
  Even the mayor of Vladivostok is concurrently the commander of the Siberian Fleet.

Regardless of the steel plant, George now needs to repair the two Gatling guns first.

What makes George depressed is that there is not even a maintenance man in the entire general regiment.

So George had no choice but to send Gatlin back to the manor himself.

The road after the snow melted was extremely difficult. The snow water and soil mixed together and turned into slush, which melted and frozen. George's heart was as irritable as this road.

Fortunately, after entering the manor, the road was finally clear.

The road was built last summer and went through the winter without any problems.

The prototype guns of Joseph and Igor's masters and apprentices have been built, just like George requested, a magazine-type rifle that can hold five rounds of bullets.

Then a new problem came.

The bullets used by the Berdan II rifle are paper shells, and the primer is black powder. After the bullet is fired, gunpowder residue and shell fragments will be left in the chamber. If not cleaned in time, the shooting accuracy will be affected. In serious cases, it may even cause damage to the gun. Exploded chamber.

So with new rifles, bullets also need to be replaced with metal shells.

The propellant should also be replaced with smokeless powder.

Gatling also used black powder, which also caused bullet jams.

"We'll talk about the bullets later. I have a new idea. We want to make a new machine gun." George is not in a hurry. There is smokeless gunpowder and metal cartridge cases. These difficulties will be overcome one by one.

"No problem, you just want a cannon, we can make it too!" Joseph was very happy. He had just received a reward of 1000 rubles.

Master Igor and his apprentice were also happy. Their bonuses were also 1000 rubles.

Now Joseph and Igor's masters and apprentices have moved to the manor to settle down. Igor's wife has nothing to do and has reclaimed several acres of wasteland to grow vegetables and food.

Dalia asked Yeroshin to send a message to George and asked him if he wanted to collect taxes.

George dismissed it with a stroke of his pen.

What kind of tax should be charged? If you have three melons and two jujubes, you don’t have much money. On the contrary, it will dampen the enthusiasm for land reclamation.

Not only did he not collect taxes, George also opened the door to convenience. The big animals in the manor could be used freely, and he could plant as much as he wanted, and all the grain he harvested was his own.

(End of this chapter)