Chapter 181: Entering Service

Once the standard rifle type was settled, the attendees struck while the iron was hot and added a sniper variant.

Not using the Sharps as a sniper rifle would be a complete waste.

During the American Civil War, although the muzzle-loading Springfield rifle was the main force, the sleek Sharps rifle was the weapon soldiers loved most.

The Sharps did not see widespread adoption at first because its price was $35, nearly three times more expensive than a muzzle-loader. In 1862, with the Union army suffering successive defeats under a dire situation, President Lincoln personally intervened, and the Northern army finally purchased 1,500 Sharps rifles, forming the 1st and 2nd Sharpshooter Regiments under Colonel Berdan's command — thus beginning the Sharps' glorious era.

From that moment on, the Sharps rifle's fame soared: its primary function was battlefield sniping. A veteran with experience could even shoot and kill an enemy at a distance of over 400 meters. One must understand, a human body at 400 meters is only the size of a matchbox — unlike the North American bison, whose massive bulk makes it easy to aim at.

The most crucial point: these sniping achievements were accomplished without scopes, using fixed paper cartridges! The Sharps rifle's accuracy is evident from this alone.

After the Civil War ended, the Sharps also participated in world-class shooting competitions many times and achieved outstanding results.

The transmigrators naturally would not overlook this rifle's most outstanding attribute. So at that day's seminar, in addition to the standard model, another sniper-type Sharps with a slightly longer barrel and a scope mount seat pre-reserved on the receiver was also confirmed — even if only using self-produced 4x scopes in the future, soldiers could accurately eliminate enemies within 800 meters.

Regarding the specific details of the two new firearms, during that afternoon's discussion, the five transmigrators, through deliberation, ultimately established the framework and requirements item by item.

These specifications and requirements would be taken by Cao Chuan on a USB drive back to the later era, and then, after going through processes like modification by professional weapons designers, digital simulation, and live-fire prototype testing, 200 prototype guns would pass through Cao Chuan's hands to arrive at Dayuan and equip the army.

The blueprints for these prototype guns would be read and discussed by workers in the Kiln District's military factory workshops; in the days to come, countless soldiers would carry Kiln District-produced knock-off Sharps rifles, charging into battle and burying the enemy under a rain of bullets.

Leaping over the three stages of the matchlock, the smoothbore Brown Bess, and the rifled Minié rifle, the Sharps — this almost science-fiction rifle — would soon arrive early for the army.

It bridged the enormous gulf between muzzle-loader and breech-loader, allowing the breech-loader's greatest strategic advantage — soldiers loading while prone — to arrive in the 17th century ahead of time.

From now on, the seemingly comical but actually slaughterous act of war — trenches and foxholes versus dense square formations — would appear in the transmigration plane.

This is what is meant by "peaking right out of the gate."

The reason the transmigration faction's attitude toward this prototype gun was so cautious lies right here: since the advantage is so enormous, the prototype gun's design must be handled with extreme care, because the possibility of future upgrades and replacements is practically nonexistent.

Although the Sharps could easily be modified into a metallic cartridge version, the Great Office had already made its stance clear: one-time finalization, no future modifications or upgrades; copper cartridges are impossible — not in this lifetime.

There will always be more important copper-hungry consumers like cables, wires, motors, refrigerators, and electric vehicles standing in line ahead; the development of an industrial society has an insatiable demand for metallic copper.

With the Sharps already godlike, expecting the Great Office to import several dozen sets of specialized equipment, seize a few more copper mines, and mass-produce copper cartridge bullets — whether that's a once-in-a-blue-moon event or a "within our lifetime" one, we can only wait and see.

In short, the new gun would be frozen in place the moment it was finalized.

Perhaps one day, some power base would possess abundant copper and a strong industrial base; however, by that time, all sorts of bolt-action rifles more suited to copper cartridges would have already stepped onto the stage of history: for instance, the widely known Mauser, Type 38, and Mosin-Nagant. The Sharps, an old gun with an outdated design, would still get no chance for modification even then, and could only silently give off its last trace of waste heat in the blockhouse of some remote colony.

Three days later, while another group of people were bullshitting at the cannon seminar, Chairman Cao had already returned to the later era with the USB drive.

As for cannons, well — from the moment someone announced that metallic copper was forbidden for use in firearms and cannons, no one paid them any attention anymore.

Even without using copper cartridges, there was still plenty of room for innovation with firearms: rifled Minié, breech-loading Sharps — these were all designs that could change the mode of warfare, just like the steam engine compared to the waterwheel.

Cannons, however, were lackluster. Without metal shells, the muzzle-loading smoothbore cannon became the only option, and the tragic point is: this thing has no skill tree to unlock.

From the present 17th century, all the way to the Opium War 200 years later, the muzzle-loading smoothbore cannon underwent no revolutionary changes — larger caliber, increased range, finding ways to make each part a bit sturdier — that was the entirety of its evolution.

But these changes were mostly just riding the coattails of upgrades in the metal processing industry. As for the smoothbore cannon itself — big mouth, fat rear, a hole in its breech, and when it throws a fit it spits out an iron ball — ahem, this design remained unchanged for centuries.

The transmigrators were no exception.

The transmigrators could smelt good steel and good iron, could apply all sorts of heat treatments to metals, all sorts of electric hammers and hydraulic presses, all sorts of frying, steaming, and stir-frying. However, at most, these techniques would let the transmigrators produce smoothbore cannon barrels with slightly thinner walls, slightly better heat dissipation, and a slightly higher hit rate for the iron balls fired — in essence, it was still a muzzle-loading smoothbore cannon, with no generational technological gap compared to the opponent's.

So no one paid attention to smoothbore cannons: 2, 4, 6, 8 — the military factory should honestly practice its craft according to these pound ratings; whenever they managed to produce the long-barreled 24-pounder naval cannon, that would count as success.

As for army cannons, those had not yet been put on the agenda for the time being.

Before the Sharps rifle — with its 800-meter effective range and breech-loading — all medium-sized smoothbore cannons had, at this moment, become a burden for soldiers carrying out missions.

Take those 2, 4, 6, and 8-pounder cannons that historically accompanied soldiers advancing: those with a range under 800 meters were now in an awkward position. Even if they reached 800 meters, after the artillerymen painstakingly pushed the heavy gun carriage to the front and fired an iron ball, they would find the enemy already wiped out by dense bullet rain — this was extremely awkward.

Whatever a cannon could do, the Sharps could do — this was the 17th century; the Europeans' half-serpentines needed a caliber of 12 pounds or more to reach an 800-meter range. In fact, these iron ball cannons with no accuracy whatsoever were utterly useless against transmigrator soldiers deployed in scattered skirmish lines, sparsely lying prone, and firing with breech-loading rifles.

Science and technology are the primary productive force; the breech-loading rifle, appearing over 200 years ahead of time, eliminated all medium-sized smoothbore cannons from the army's order of battle overnight.

The transmigrators would at least need to produce a 12-pounder Napoleon cannon before it could barely be of use in medium-scale battles.

As for large army smoothbore cannons — well, when the day of a grand battle with tens of thousands of men truly arrives, it would probably be a battle for the Central Plains; it wouldn't be about killing deer, no — it would be about chasing deer, and by then we could just bring out the Italian cannon, couldn't we?

Half a month later, Chief Executive Cao brought a case of imported goods, among which were 10 sample guns.

Of these 10 sample guns, 2 were sniper types equipped with scopes.

Everyone who saw the sample guns was utterly dumbfounded.

Beautiful classic deep-red lacquer finish, walnut stock, and on the receiver, highly three-dimensional laser-engraved ornamentation featuring dense cloud-and-dragon motifs — this was not a gun; it was a work of art.

Facing everyone's astonished gazes, Cao Chuan, smiling wryly off to the side, shrugged: "Don't look at me — I was forced into this too."

In fact, Chief Executive Cao really had been forced into it.

No legitimate weapons company would start cutting materials and manufacturing for an unconventional gun model with an order quantity of only 200 units; design was one thing, production was another.

Cao Chuan had no choice but to seek out those private workshops that produced high-end artisanal firearms.

Unexpectedly, this turned out to be exactly the right path: nearly all private workshops had experience producing high-end vintage Sharps hunting rifles.

After the purchasing manager sent by Cao Chuan produced the sample gun and blueprints, these handcraft workshops — capable of producing the highest-precision gun barrels — quickly cut barrels to the specified length according to the blueprint requirements, then machined the receivers, pulled ready-made cloud-and-dragon motifs from their image libraries, ran the laser over them, and just like that, the 10 sample guns were done.

It is worth mentioning that the laser engraving was mandatory; otherwise, they would not sell the "naked" gun — lacking artistry, it would damage their brand.

After hearing Chief Executive Cao's account, the comrades all burst into hearty laughter.

And so, vintage Sharps rifles priced at $4,000 each appeared on 17th-century Dayuan Island just like that. Keep in mind, a civilian semi-automatic in an American Walmart Supermarket costs only 500 bucks a pop, and they even go on sale during holidays.

Additionally, in a few days, another 200 Sharps without stocks would be arriving; Chief Executive Cao wanted everyone to be prepared.

That aspect posed no real problem. In fact, only using expensive sappanwood, suanzhi, or red sandalwood and rosewood for the stocks could match these beautiful works of art — a certain power base entrenched on the island lacked everything, except high-grade wood.

For the 10 sample guns Chief Executive Cao brought over, the standard model weighed 3.9 kilograms, was 1050 millimeters long, used. 45-inch caliber paper cartridges, had a rate of fire of 8-10 rounds per minute, an effective range of 400 meters, and a maximum range of 800 meters.

The overall weight and length of the gun were considerably reduced compared to the original version, and accessories including the bayonet lug, rear sight, and front sight were all fully fitted, ready for combat at any time.

As for the sniper type, besides the barrel being slightly longer than the standard model, three shallow grooves were added under the handguard to assist in securing the scope: a certain power base could not produce Picatinny rails, and would use self-produced scopes and mounts in the future.

Two days later, after hands-on testing by military personnel confirmed that the replica vintage Sharps brought by Chief Executive Cao fully met the design standards, these 10 beautiful rifles, following a brief naming and gun-presentation ceremony, officially entered service.

Of course, after officially entering service, this gun could no longer be called the Sharps. Considering that this gun was finalized and produced in the year 1628 of the transmigration plane, at the presentation ceremony, the new gun was formally named the "Type 28 Rifle" by Grand Secretary Xia.

Of course, true to the grassroots masses' consistent contempt for authority and their revolutionary spirit of finding joy amidst hardship, in the years to come, this gun was quickly branded with vulgar nicknames like "Type 38 Rifle" and "Type 28" — the poor quality of certain transmigrators is evident from this alone.

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