Chapter 142 Alcohol Test
The process of Russia's occupation of Amur was very simple. Muraviev found that there were few people in the entire Far East, so he immigrated frantically and formed a de facto occupation.
In 1860, Muravyov took advantage of the fact that the Qing Empire was mired in the Opium War and had no time to visit the north, forcing the Qing Empire to sign the Treaty of Aihun.
Now the opportunity has come again. Goryeo is in civil strife, and Russia, which has tasted the sweetness, will not let this opportunity go.
No matter how the Siberian fleet operates, George goes to visit Igor's master and apprentice.
After master and apprentice Igor came to Vladivostok last year, he entered the ordnance repair shop to work.
The Ordnance Repair House was specially established for the Siberian Fleet. Daily work is very easy. The Siberian Fleet itself actually has an Ordnance Repair House, but due to poor management, it is almost inactive and has little daily business.
George's ordnance repair shop has six technicians, more than 40 repair workers, and more than 100 apprentices. These apprentices are all selected from Chinese employees. On the one hand, they learn repair skills and on the other hand I learned Russian and signed a labor contract for ten years.
“These students are very smart. Many of them are already qualified repairmen. Their progress in Russian is also good. They have no problem with daily conversations. They are often borrowed by the Immigration Bureau as translators - everything is good here. , The work is so busy that everyone feels uneasy every time they receive a salary. "Igor is the director and chief technician of the repair shop. He used his spare time to design a shotgun.
In Oak Park, Igor tasted the sweetness of designing weapons, and George gave him a bonus that was much more than his salary.
The market for military weapons is always limited, and civilian use is a larger market.
The range problem that the Grand Dukes of St. Petersburg were worried about will be perfectly solved after the promotion of shotguns.
The shotgun is powerful, but the range is insufficient. The effective range is basically within 100 meters, making it impossible to shoot accurately at long distances.
"We cooperated with the ordnance repair shop of the Siberian Fleet to produce some smokeless gunpowder that can be used as propellant, so we came up with this shotgun-" Igor's words opened up George's thinking.
George had tried to get involved in the production of smokeless gunpowder in St. Petersburg, but ultimately failed.
The Ordnance Institute of the Siberian Fleet, despite its small scale and poor management, still has very powerful functions. Not to mention smokeless gunpowder, if it has the ability, it can directly produce artillery.
George doesn’t have that big ambition now. Artillery is too far away, so let’s start with smokeless gunpowder.
"Is smokeless gunpowder stable?" George was most worried about safety issues.
"It's okay, at least so far, there have been no problems." Igor is a fool, and he is lucky that nothing has happened so far.
“How much is the output?” George is still concerned about scale.
Igor was finally embarrassed.
This shotgun and smokeless gunpowder were made for fun by the boys at the ordnance repair shop.
There is not much life in the ordnance repair shop now. Igor is happy and relaxed, but the boys can't bear the loneliness.
So Igor’s apprentice Karpov and several young men from a gun repair shop made several shotguns to prepare for hunting.
Vladivostok is a vast area with sparsely populated areas and numerous wild animals. The significance of a shotgun is not only for hunting, but also for protecting oneself.
Karpov's skills were still not superb enough, and Igor couldn't stand the shotgun he made.
It was a shame for the dignified ordnance repair shop to make such a thing, so Igor took action himself, and this is how he got the current double-barreled shotgun.
It is originally used for entertainment, so the output cannot be too high. The output of smokeless gunpowder cannot even be talked about. It is only made a little bit and needs to be processed again.
"How powerful is this gun?" George did not look down on the shotgun just because it was a civilian weapon.
“It’s okay. Because the propellant uses smokeless gunpowder, it is lethal at a distance of 100 meters. The key is that it is very powerful. It can shoot more than ten warheads at a time. It does not even require precise aiming at close range. Just hit it." Igor is still very confident in his skills.
George has no technical skills, but he can provide Igor with ideas.
"The Qing Empire has a kind of Spencer rifle, you know?" George hoped that Igor could draw inferences from one example.
"Spencer——" Igor could not only draw inferences from one instance, but also correct George's mistakes.
The Spencer rifle was not only owned by the Qing Empire, but also by the ordnance station of the Siberian Fleet. Karpov quickly got one.
“Let’s study his ammunition supply device and use this shotgun bullet to see if we can make a magazine-type shotgun.” George had an idea.
"What's the point of doing this?" Igor needs to understand George's needs before he can design for them.
"It can be used in trench warfare, street fighting, or encounters." George knew how useful the shotgun was.
In the wars of the 19th century, once there was close contact, the probability of hand-to-hand combat was extremely high, and there were almost no other options.
If the Russian army is still a gray beast, then hand-to-hand combat will not matter.
George hopes to take the route of elite troops. At least the army in Vladivostok will be elite troops in the future. George does not advocate allowing such troops to fight hand-to-hand combat with the enemy.
It's not that you can't fight, but the exchange ratio in hand-to-hand combat is too high. Basically, one person is replaced by another. There are only so many people in Vladivostok, and George can't afford to die.
Then use more superior weapons and equipment to bully others.
Now that there are even shotguns, should the pistols be updated as well?
George really couldn't stand the silly, thick, black No. 3 pistol. It could obviously be made smaller and easier to carry, even if the range and power were smaller, it didn't matter.
Pistol No. 3 also uses black powder bullets. After the popularization of smokeless gunpowder, No. 3 will also be eliminated. This is a good opportunity, and George has no reason to let it go.
No. 3 was specially developed by American Smith & Wesson for the Russian Empire. Russia only purchased 44,000 guns and then organized its own production.
For this reason, Tula is still fighting a lawsuit with Smith & Wesson.
If George can improve No. 3, Russia will no longer have to go to foreign countries to purchase new weapons. This is also George's contribution to the empire. "Didn't we choose our magazine-type rifle?" Igor was surprised.
Russia's production capacity is limited. Currently, only the Guards have begun to replace their weapons. The Bodan rifle has not yet been used in Vladivostok.
This is not surprising either.
The Siberian Fleet is a navy, and the order of replacing weapons is originally ranked after the army.
"It's not a complete change of equipment, just part of the equipment." George's understanding of equipment is different from that of most Russians.
In George's view, whether the troops need to replace equipment and what kind of equipment should be replaced should be demand-oriented. As long as there is a need, it should be replaced.
The Russian military’s attitude is that as long as it can be used, it will be fine.
This is particularly evident in smokeless gunpowder.
After the Petersburg Academy of Sciences developed stable smokeless gunpowder, Russia did not take any action for a full year and a half, and did not even conduct research and development related to smokeless gunpowder, wasting a rare window period.
It was not until the French also developed stable smokeless gunpowder that Russia had to change its equipment.
The speed of equipment change is extremely slow. It has been another year, and even the Guards have not all changed to new rifles.
Not even talking about the Guards.
There is also a battalion of the Oak Regiment that uses Berdan rifles.
This is also understandable.
The Russian army is large in size, has many troops, and the cost of replacement is also high, which is a heavy financial burden for the empire.
The factory is going all out to make all Russian troops use new rifles within a year or two. What else will the factory do next? It cannot close down.
The Tsar's attitude towards the arsenal was very serious. Even the Obukhov Steel Plant had been nationalized, and the arsenal promised by Nikolai has no further details. Most likely Yasan disagreed.
That's right, if it were George, it would be impossible for George to control something as important as the arsenal in private hands.
So George’s approach is to start from the civilian market.
Aren’t the Grand Dukes of St. Petersburg worried about being sniped from a distance?
A shotgun has a short range and a long barrel, making it difficult to carry. No one would have thought of using a shotgun to assassinate the Tsar.
Russia’s domestic demand for weapons is an unavoidable problem. It was impossible to ban guns until the 21st century, and it was even less possible in the 19th century.
Not even Cossacks.
George's farm in Vladivostok is also equipped with a large number of weapons. Workers have to carry guns when they go to open up wasteland. Even so, accidents cannot be avoided.
Last year, there were hundreds of incidents of wild animals attacking humans in Vladivostok.
Some Chinese workers didn't know enough about the environment in Vladivostok. They got up in the middle of the night to go to the toilet, but no one was there.
It is really gone. It was not bitten to death, but simply disappeared and can never be found again.
In this case, when it comes to banning guns, George is the first to disagree.
Since it cannot be restrained, we must find ways to guide it. It is better to block it than to disperse it. This is the wisdom left by our ancestors.
"Find ways to expand the production scale of smokeless gunpowder and this kind of shotgun, and organize large-scale production as soon as possible." George gave Igor a task.
"Then we will need more machines and raw materials." Igor was in trouble.
The raw materials of smokeless gunpowder are easy to handle.
The key is what the shotgun is made of.
Shotguns have requirements for longevity and cannot just use steel pipes as barrels.
There is no steel factory in Vladivostok now, let alone weapons steel that requires more stringent requirements.
"I'll figure it out. Your task is to continuously improve the weapons and improve production efficiency." George has ways to improve efficiency, but it's useless now. You can't make a fat man with one bite. Solve the machine first. and raw material issues.
To solve these two problems, George still has to rely on Nicholas.
George would not make the same mistake as Ichiro Shiga. In the Balkans, every city George visited would purchase local specialties for Nicholas.
The same is true in the Far East.
The gifts that George was interested in from the Far East were basically from the Qing Empire.
The special products of the Qing Empire were much richer than those in the Balkans. Silk and porcelain were very popular throughout Europe.
George also has a big killer weapon.
What Russians like most is not silk and porcelain, but wine.
(End of this chapter)