Duke Mikhail loves the rifle in his hand. He has never used a rifle that is so easy to load and shoots so accurately. If his young man had one of these weapons, he would not be afraid to fight against Napoleon in Jerusalem!
After firing a few more rounds, Duke Mikhail began to carefully fiddle with the weapon in his hand. As mentioned earlier, this rifle is basically similar to the current smoothbore flintlock rifle of the Russian army, except that the barrel is cut off near the stock.
It has a forward-turned hinge structure and rifling engraved in the barrel. In addition, the bullet is not the previous spherical bullet, but is similar to the British Migne rifle bullet.
The so-called minie bullet is actually an early rifled rifle bullet loaded in the front. The bullet is no longer spherical, but conical. The British and Sardinian troops who used minie bullets in the Crimean War gave the Russian army a huge advantage.
Killing, but loading this new type of bullet is still troublesome.
Li Xiao's improved version of the breech grab uses a minie bullet warhead. When loading, first put the warhead into the gun chamber, then fill the turned-up barrel with black powder, then close the barrel lock and pull up
With the flint in the hammer, aim and finally pull the trigger to release the hammer.
This procedure is actually quite troublesome, but it is much simpler than a muzzle-loading musket, and it is very convenient to eliminate blind ammunition.
Don't underestimate the misfire of bullets. In the era of flintlock guns, there was an average misfire every seven shots. It is not an ordinary trouble and tedious to eliminate the misfire of a muzzleloader. The breech gun is not so complicated. Open the lock.
Flip up the barrel and the problem is solved.
In short, Duke Mikhail was extremely satisfied with this new rifle. He sincerely praised: "Your Excellency, this is an epoch-making invention. With this weapon, we can conquer hell!"
Li Xiao just expressed his gratitude modestly, without much excitement. Because this improvement is really not epoch-making. He just found inspiration from the live-door rifle. In the 1860s, European powers in order to adapt to rifled and fixed-load ammunition
I had no choice but to improve the muzzleloader gun I had, so I chose to transform the old weapon.
This led to the birth of the outrageously crude swing-door rifle. This weapon was far from easy to use. Its only advantage was that it could be obtained by improving old rifles. To put it bluntly, it was cheap and economical.
The shutter rifle does not have any performance advantages compared to the contemporaneous lever-action rifles, lift-off rifles, bolt-action rifles and bolt-action rifles. It is really a weapon that is very easy to deal with and make do with.
But this kind of backward weapon is very suitable for Russia. Because Russia's industry is backward, it is simply unable to replace new weapons on a large scale (even in World War I, the simple Mosinagan Russian army could not even have one man per man, and it had to be full).
The world is looking for "allies" to trade rifles to make ends meet).
Moreover, Russia was extremely poor, and they were reluctant to throw away the large number of muskets they had. It would have been better to kill Nicholas I if he was asked to spend a lot of money to buy new rifles.
Therefore, for Russia, the only way is to obtain fire sticks that are reasonably functional and can at least keep up with the times through low-cost investment. In this case, the live-door rifle is the only option.
Duke Mikhail immediately realized the brilliance of Li Xiao's choice. The improvement was simple and easy, and there was no need to replace all the rifles, so the old antiques in the War Department would not object.
The inventory of old-style muskets in the Russian army exceeds millions. Even if only half of them are improved, it is a huge business. Each rifle only earns one ruble, which is a huge profit of hundreds of thousands of rubles. What's more, one
The cost of improving a rifle is far more than just one ruble. It is a big business worth millions of rubles no matter how you look at it!
Duke Mikhail immediately became excited. Because he could earn this money. And it was reasonable and legal. Even other allies of the Holy Alliance, such as Prussia and Austria, had similar needs, even if they only granted patent authorization.
Can you make a lot of money?
"Grand Duke, please tell me your thoughts in detail!"
When faced with huge wealth, Duke Mikhail could not remain calm. He had to have a good talk with Li Xiao. I believe that the other party is so smart that he must know that the Gorchakov family is the best partner.
Li Xiao was actually very happy in his heart. For him, he had not only thousands, but tens of thousands of ways to think about such a ridiculously crude thing like a swing-gate rifle. He could use this kind of rubbish as a stepping stone.
, it is really cost-effective to gain the friendship of the Gorchakov family. You can even let him work for nothing without paying for it!
But now it seems that Grand Duke Mikhail is obviously not greedy. Faced with the huge wealth of millions of rubles, he has no intention of taking it by force, but wants to cooperate with him. This is already very kind.
But Li Xiao knew that Menshikov's guys were very greedy. They just wanted to reap the benefits. They were basically iron roosters who couldn't get rid of anything.
Li Xiao is a person who is very stingy when he is shrewd and meticulous. For example, a bastard like Mesadov, he will definitely spend every penny. But if you follow the rules and speak well, he is not unable to make concessions.
Li Xiao immediately replied: "This kind of rifle is simple and quick to improve, and the cost is obviously more advantageous than buying a brand-new rifle. It can also significantly improve the combat effectiveness of our army. I personally think it is necessary to promote it comprehensively."
In fact, Duke Mikhail has no interest in these words. He is not blind. How could he not see the obvious advantages? Without these, he would not talk nonsense to Li Xiao. This is not what he really wants to hear.
Li Xiao also knew what Duke Mikhail really cared about, and he immediately added: "But I also know that it is not easy to promote this improvement. It requires a highly respected person to lobby... I think you are the Duke.
The most suitable candidate!”
Duke Mikhail smiled and said: "Haha, that's ridiculous, I'm just a veteran."
Obviously this is still not what he wants to hear the most, but he is also patient, and he knows that what Li Xiao really wants to say is yet to come.
"I personally believe that if there is work, there must be gains. Promoting a new rifle is a huge project, and it cannot happen overnight. Promoters must not be allowed to work in vain, so I take the liberty to propose to you..."
"We provide the technology, and you provide the capital. We establish a joint venture to establish a gun factory to undertake orders for improved rifles. We cooperate to win-win and share the profits... Our technology accounts for 40% of the shares, and you are responsible for the factory construction funds and promotion, accounting for 60% of the shares."
Duke Mikhail nodded in his mind. He had the same idea. Although the shareholding ratio was still slightly different from what he expected, it was still negotiable!