Jagged Warlord

Li Mohan asked Mu Xiangyue to continue to follow up on the matter of dyes, but he went to the train station to meet a group of technicians Duan Qirui gave him.Weng Zhilin, Han Linchun, Shen Fengming, Liu Qingen, Jiang Tingzi, Du Wei, Zheng Zixi, a total of seven people.But in fact only six people came, Weng Zhilin, Han Linchun, Shen Fengming, Liu Qingen, and Zheng Zixi.Duan Qirui refused to let Jiang Tingzi who didn't come because he was charged with the heavy responsibility of building the Gongxian arsenal.

Li Mohan took a transfer to the train station to pick up Weng Zhilin, Han Linchun, Shen Fengming, Liu Qingen, and Zheng Zixi. After bringing them to the Governor's Mansion, there was a big feast.After changing glasses and drinking for three rounds, Li Mohan began to arrange these people.

The first was Zheng Zixi, who entered the Greenwich Naval Academy in 1901.A year later, he was recommended to be admitted to Arms Qulang Royal Naval Research Institute to specialize in the manufacture of naval guns, and participated in the design of shore guns in the arsenal. He was hailed as one of the "Three Masters of Asia" by the British scientific and technological circles.Later, he successively served as the chief English copywriter and counselor of the Chinese embassy in the UK, and was promoted to the title of Zhengsipinspecial purpose after his meritorious service.In the first year of the Republic of China, Sun Yat-sen summoned him to return to China.When he arrived in Shanghai, Sun had resigned, so he was hired by the Commercial Press to manage the machinery repair shop of the Oriental Printing Institute. It can be said that he has been in a state of professional inadequacy.Li Mohan gave Zheng Zixi two choices, one is to go to Lianyungang to supervise the port construction, and the other is to stay in the Jinan Arsenal to be responsible for the research and development and manufacture of artillery.Zheng Zixi chose the latter, so Li Mohan arranged a special car to send Zheng Zixi to Haizhou overnight.

Afterwards, Weng Zhilin and Han Linchun were arranged. Both of them were talents in arsenal management, so Li Mohan arranged Weng Zhilin in Shangqiu arsenal and Han Linchun in Jinan arsenal.

Next is Shen Fengming and Du Wei's arrangement.When Shen Fengming was in the Hanyang factory, he was mainly in charge of the factory affairs of the steel and pharmaceutical part of Hubei Steel and Pharmaceutical Factory.Later, he served as the general office of Hubei Steel Pharmaceutical Factory, and presided over a number of improvements to the process of manufacturing smokeless powder, which increased the output of gunpowder.

And Du Wei graduated from the Gunpowder Department of Tokyo Imperial University in Japan with a bachelor's degree in engineering. Weak cotton that is almost completely dissolved, and according to different types of smokeless medicines, mix the two with water in a device with a stirrer in different proportions.Thereby changing the structure of nitrocellulose components, increasing the nitrogen content of nitrocellulose, achieving the purpose of increasing the energy of smokeless medicine, and improving the stability of nitrogen content and solubility of nitrocellulose and the quality of smokeless medicine. They are all talents in military chemical industry, and they were left in the Jinan Arsenal.

As for Liu Qingen, Li Mohan has long admired the military expert who designed and manufactured China's first semi-automatic rifle, so he is very attentive to Liu Qingen.On the contrary, Liu Qingen was a little displeased with his order to be transferred to Shandong, but his attitude towards Li Mohan was not particularly enthusiastic.

Li Mohan thought for a while and asked, "Does Ziqing think that coming to Shandong will delay your development of self-loading rifles?"

Liu Qingen let out an "oh" and asked, "Does the warlord also know about self-loading rifles?"

Li Mohan smiled and said, "It's more than knowing, it's like thunder. Ziqing designed this self-loading rifle with a caliber of 7.92mm Mauser bullets. The bayonet weighs 1207kg without loading, the whole gun (without bayonet and without loading) weighs 703.1kg, and the bullet weighs 780g. Combat rate of fire: 5 rounds, magazine capacity: 4.3 rounds. Effective range: 10 meters , Scale range: 50 meters, maximum range: 6 meters."

Li Mohan recited the data of the semi-automatic rifle shot by Liu Qingen like a treasure, and Liu Qingen was overjoyed.For gun designers, each gun is like its own child.Li Mohan was so familiar with the gun designed by Liu Qingen that he immediately shortened the distance between him and Liu Qingen.

Liu Qingen suddenly opened up the chatter box and began to chatter endlessly.The weight of the whole gun is about one catty heavier than ordinary rifles, and there are 94 large and small parts. The gas force makes the barrel stretch forward slightly, so it moves the bolt with the mainspring; when the bullet exits, the remaining part of the gas force of the ammunition completely retreats the bolt; the spring at the back of the mainspring Because of the elongation, the cartridge case is withdrawn at the same time, and the spring plate is lifted by one cartridge; and after the gas force of the ammunition is completely eliminated, the spring at the rear part of the clockwork shrinks and restores, and it closes automatically with the trigger.After the bullet has been put, the gun lock will retreat in one row, that is, it will not be closed again, which can indicate that there is no bullet in the gun.When you want to change the self-loading to the normal one, you only need to rotate the muzzle beam cylinder so that the three small holes are facing outwards, and the gas force of the ammunition cannot pass through, then the self-loading function can be stopped.

Li Mohan said to Liu Qingen: "When Mr. Liu was in the Hanyang factory, no matter the capital, workers and technology were restricted, he could not give full play to your ingenuity. It is different when you come to me. My factory is no better than those old factories. , Whether it is the management method, management concept, or the mentality and quality of the workers, they are all brand new, and it is completely a modern industrialized mass production management model."

Liu Qingen replied: "When I was in the Hanyang factory, it was indeed a lot of inconvenience. I heard that the warlord's factory used American machines, and my self-loading rifle was also produced in the United States with American machine molds. If it is produced, I am afraid it will be difficult."

Li Mohan smiled and said, "If you have any difficulties, Ziqing, just ask. First, don't be afraid that I don't have money. Who doesn't know that I, Li Mohan, have a lot of money? Second, don't be afraid that I won't be able to use this expensive rifle; Third, you need American machine molds, and I will find a way to buy them from the United States as soon as possible. But there is one thing, you must show me the results."

Liu Qingen was also unambiguous, and said: "As long as you get the machine mold or something, the governor, I, Liu Qingen, will make it for you in minutes."

"Okay, what I want is your spirit." Li Mohan said, "But I have to point out a few relatively big flaws on your self-loading rifle."

"Flaw?" Liu Qingen was stunned, and hurriedly asked, "What flaw?"

"First, your gun uses 7-round magazines, which are 5 more than the Mauser-style 2-round magazines. Two 10-round magazines are inserted, which is convenient for loading and greatly improves the firepower continuity; secondly, the guide rail behind the receiver is used to complete the backward movement when the gun is recoiled, but this design is very difficult for soldiers. Dangerous, because the impact energy of the recoil force is very large, and the high-energy gas generated when the bolt recoils is easy to hit the shooter's face. I suggest canceling the guide rail, and instead extending the bolt and installing a dust cover on the top design; third, the barrel The outer sleeve is a gas cylinder, which is equivalent to a gas regulator, and can switch between manual and semi-automatic shooting modes. However, because the gas cylinder is filled with gas, it has caused certain pollution to the soldiers. I suggest that its function be converted to The muzzle brake is no longer responsible for barrel gas regulation."

Liu Qingen was very surprised. The self-loading rifle that he regarded as his proud work was suddenly pointed out three shortcomings, which made Liu Qingen very embarrassed when he arrived, and also made Liu Qingen look at this little white-faced warlord who looked like an embroidered pillow.

Li Mohan asked Shen Fengming and Du Wei again, "Are you two still satisfied with my arrangement?"

Shen Fengming smiled and said: "Basically, we still do the original work. We are soldiers and obey orders as our bounden duty. But if the Overseer is really thirsty for talents, I can recommend another person for the Overseer."

"Who?" Li Mohan asked

Shen Fengming replied: "Xu Shangwu, the ordnance chief of the Army Department."

Du Wei seemed to come to his senses, and said: "If you don't mention me, you will forget it. This Xu Shangwu is a talent. Although he doesn't read much, he has succeeded in imitating bitter sour, but he has never heard of any arsenal factory. mass-produced."

Picric acid is called trinitrophenol in Chinese. On January 1893, 1, the Japanese Navy officially began to replace Shigose gunpowder shells filled with picric acid as the main component in the Japanese navy. This move was extremely rare in the world at that time.Due to concerns about the instability of picric acid explosives, the navies of European powers did not use this high explosive. Until the Japanese-Russian Tsushima Sea War in 28, the warheads of the Russian fleet’s shells were still filled with weaker explosive cotton powder.However, the Japanese quickly solved this problem. They coated the inner wall of the shell with a layer of paint and then a layer of wax to cleverly overcome the problem of unstable contact between the picric acid explosive and the metal.

This kind of shell has a series of amazing characteristics. First of all, the shell is extremely sensitive. Even if it hits a small rope, it can cause an explosion. After the explosion, it will not only form the same shock wave and shell fragments as when ordinary black powder shells explode, but will also be accompanied by The fire with a core temperature of thousands of degrees is said to be able to ignite steel. The flame formed by the explosion of this gunpowder will spread and flow like gasoline on fire, and it can continue to burn for a period of time even in water.In addition, when the Shitose gunpowder shell with picric acid as the component explodes, there will be toxic yellow smoke, which is completely different from the white smoke produced when the black powder shell explodes.

It is worth mentioning that due to the terrible destructive power of Shigase gunpowder, the Beiyang Navy in the Sino-Japanese War suffered a lot.

Li Mohan was very surprised and asked: "Why did he have such a major scientific research achievement, but no arsenal actually produced it?"

Du Wei smiled wryly and said: "The group of Ordnance Department, if they think about winning the qualification all the time, or they are thinking about fighting each other all day, or they are trying to get what they want. How many people are really thinking about the country where?"

Li Mohan shook his head again and again, and said, "That won't work, I must and Duan Qirui get Xu Shangwu here."