Chapter 310: Maxim M1884 Rifle

Although the arms factory named Qiaomontoya Machinery Manufacturing Plant failed in its design for a new rifle, this also brought good news to Gao Da and the Ministry of Defense.

If such a small arms factory could produce a decent rifle design, what about other arms factories of similar scale? Might they also have designs that would catch the eye?

And as for the largest Royal Arms Factory in Spain, would it design a new rifle that was truly worthy of admiration?

Carrying such questions and expectations, Gao Da waited for nearly two months, finally awaiting the new rifle design from the Royal Arms Factory.

Speaking of which, the invention of smokeless powder was also related to the Royal Arms Factory.

Serving as the chief consultant for weapon design at the Royal Arms Factory was none other than the famous father of automatic weapons, Ma Keqin.

Although Ma Keqin was world-renowned for his machine guns, he was actually a polymath. In history, he also developed smokeless powder, built airplanes powered by steam engines, and obtained hundreds of invention patents, including those for automatic sprinkler systems, automatic steam water pumps, engine speed governors, gas engines, vacuum pumps, and mousetraps.

After Spain established a research and development project related to smokeless powder, Ma Keqin actively signed up and successfully joined the R&D team.

The reason he was interested in smokeless powder was, in fact, because of the improvements it offered for machine guns.

A machine gun is a firearm with an extremely high rate of fire, which made the issue of heavy smoke from black powder even more severe for machine guns.

As soon as a machine gun opened fire, the area around the machine gunner would be filled with smoke, making it impossible to see the situation of the enemy ahead.

Black powder severely limited the effectiveness of machine guns, which made Ma Keqin eager to develop a type of gunpowder that produced no smoke.

Clearly, Ma Keqin succeeded.

After the invention of smokeless powder, Ma Keqin had intended to continue investing himself in his machine gun research. Just at this time, the Ministry of Defense issued a tender announcement for a new rifle to all arms factories.

Although the Royal Arms Factory had gathered numerous weapon design experts, it lacked a lead expert capable of shouldering the burden.

As the chief consultant for weapon design at the Royal Arms Factory, Ma Keqin had no choice but to rise to the challenge and help the arms factory design a brand-new rifle that met the requirements.

The design of rifles and machine guns involved two different schools of thought, but this difference could not stump Ma Keqin, who was a polymath.

After more than two months of effort, combined with the Royal Arms Factory's more than ten years of exploration into new rifles, there was finally a fairly perfect answer.

When the Royal Arms Factory submitted several sample rifles and relevant design data to the Ministry of Defense, Gao Da also received the news and excitedly arrived at the testing ground specifically used for weapon testing.

In fact, this testing ground belonged to the Guards Division.

Around the capital, Ma Deli, the only place with such a large-scale shooting range was the camp of the Guards Division.

Conducting weapon tests in the Guards Division's camp could also ensure a high degree of secrecy; after all, the soldiers consumed a large amount of ammunition in their daily training, and no one would pay attention to gunfire here.

The soldiers of the Guards Division were highly loyal to Gao Da and the country, so naturally, it was impossible for anyone to leak information. Moreover, most ordinary soldiers did not know the actual content of the tests, and without knowing the specifics, there was no question of a security breach.

Gao Da was the last to arrive at the shooting range. By the time Gao Da arrived, the shooting range had already been set up in advance by personnel from the Ministry of Defense and the Royal Arms Factory.

Ten rifles were already laid out on a display table that was not particularly large. The five on the left were familiar to Gao Da; they appeared to be the standard-issue rifle of Spain, the Vitali M1872 rifle.

The rifles on the right showed a hint of the Vitali rifle's shadow, but with significant changes in appearance; these were likely the brand-new rifle design brought out by the Royal Arms Factory.

Seeing Gao Da arrive, the officials from the Ministry of Defense and the staff of the Royal Arms Factory stepped forward respectfully to greet Gao Da and salute him.

After a simple procedure, Gao Da walked up to the ten rifles impatiently and said with a smile, "Let's start quickly; I can't wait to see the performance of the new rifle."

Ma Keqin nodded respectfully, stepped forward, and introduced to Gao Da and the generals of the Ministry of Defense, "Your Majesty, gentlemen, please look, this is our newly designed rifle."

"I believe you can all see from the appearance that we have retained some of the advantages of the Vitali M1872 rifle, such as the magazine cutoff and the safety handle."

"The former allows our rifle to switch from magazine-fed to manual loading mode to cope with different battlefield environments."

"The latter allows the rifle's spring to avoid being under long-term pressure while in standby, extending the service life of the spring."

"Because we have fully adopted box magazine feeding, the length of the new rifle has been shortened by about 120 millimeters, and the weight has been reduced by 450 grams, solving the shortcomings of the original Vitali rifle being long and heavy."

"Although the rifle body is shorter than the Vitali rifle, because the barrel has not been shortened, the effective range of the rifle has not been affected and can basically be maintained at around 600 meters."

"To improve feeding efficiency and increase the rate of fire, we have specifically adopted two types of magazines with different capacities. The short magazine can hold six rounds, and the long magazine can hold ten rounds, to cope with battlefield situations under different circumstances."

"When using the ten-round long magazine, the theoretical maximum rate of fire of the rifle can reach over 30 rounds per minute. As long as the soldiers are familiar with the process of changing magazines and firing, reaching such a rate of fire is absolutely no problem," Ma Keqin introduced with a smile.

The design of the long and short magazines was, in fact, to cope with different logistical conditions.

When logistics were relatively sufficient, one could fully equip the long magazine and pour bullets onto the enemy to one's heart's content.

When logistics were not very sufficient, it would be necessary to switch to the short magazine to reduce the rate of ammunition consumption.

Don't look at the few bullets saved by one rifle; what if there were tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of rifles? The saved ammunition would reach millions of rounds, so such a design was still very meaningful.

Gao Da nodded quite satisfactorily at this design. The group of officers following him were also clearly quite satisfied, discussing in low voices with smiles on their faces.

"Let the soldiers try it; I can't wait to see the performance of this rifle," Gao Da ordered.

Following Gao Da's order, several soldiers walked up, picked up the new rifles placed to the side, and began the inspection and preparation work before the test.

These soldiers had already been exposed to this new rifle in advance, and they had learned how to operate the rifle before them.

In fact, the operation process of bolt-action rifles in this era was still relatively similar. After all, the weapon designs of various European countries did not rely entirely on their own R&D; plagiarism was also one of the very important means.

The most famous plagiarist among them was the Commission 1888 rifle produced by Germany.

At that time, in order to cope with the Lebel rifle launched by France in 1886, the Germans urgently produced a rifle that could benchmark against France, which was the so-called Commission 1888 rifle.

This urgently produced rifle referenced technology from multiple countries; the rifle's bolt and magazine referenced the Austrian Mannlicher rifle, the rifling design plagiarized the French Lebel rifle, and the ammunition directly adopted the 7. 2×57mm rimless smokeless powder cartridge developed by Switzerland.

This was also the reason why Gao Da specifically requested the Ministry of Defense to issue a confidentiality order and a prohibition-of-sale order to all arms factories participating in the bidding.

Because the arms factories of European countries now design by truly plagiarizing; they don't care at all whether you have registered a patent.

Even if you really registered an international patent, they wouldn't care whether it infringed on rights. The time required to fight a cross-border patent case in this era was enough for the rifle design involved in the case to become obsolete.

By the time the cross-border patent case was won, this plagiarized rifle would have long been behind the times, and at that time, one could just abandon the infringement; anyway, obsolete rifles were useless.

As for compensation, the procurement of weapons and equipment by various countries was confidential, and no one would be foolish enough to publicly disclose relevant procurement data.

Since there was no procurement data, one would not know how much money the other party made by relying on infringement. If you don't know how much money the other party made by relying on infringement, how can you apply for infringement compensation?

This was also the reason why various countries blatantly imitated and plagiarized, because patent infringement in this era had become a norm, and even international patents could not be protected after crossing borders.

Of course, this had to be in a situation where both countries were at the same level, and it had to be a situation that did not cause major economic losses to the other party.

If a Dutch company dared to plagiarize a British company's patent and caused the British company to lose a large sum of money, you would see if the British would launch retaliation against the Dutch.

Returning to the rifle experiment, after completing the preparatory work, the rifle test officially began.

First was testing the various data of the new rifle, such as the rifle's rate of fire, the bullet's muzzle velocity, the rifle's shooting distance, and the power of the shot, etc.

This round of testing was not complicated, and the specific data was quickly obtained.

Gao Da was the first to receive the test data, followed by the generals of the Ministry of Defense.

Looking at the test data in their hands, some people were already beaming with joy.

This test data not only did not disappoint them, but instead made the army generals overjoyed.

Just look at this test data and you will know.

The effective shooting distance of the new rifle not only reached the minimum threshold of 400 meters required by the Ministry of Defense, but even met the Ministry of Defense's highest expectation of 600 meters.

Although the accuracy would drop significantly once it exceeded 200 meters, and after exceeding 400 meters, one could only rely on luck to hit the enemy.

But this performance was already quite excellent; after all, this was not a sniper rifle, it was neither equipped with a scope nor had the barrel been tuned, so having such accuracy was already quite good.

This rifle's performance in terms of shooting distance was quite excellent, and this was only one of them.

In terms of muzzle velocity, according to preliminary estimates, the bullet's muzzle velocity could reach an exaggerated level of 700 meters per second; standing a little further away, one might not even hear the gunshot before the bullet arrived.

However, the significant increase in muzzle velocity was not strange; after all, compared to the bullets used by the Vitali rifle, the new rifle's bullets had undergone major changes, with the bullet weight reduced by nearly half.

The original Vitali rifle used a 10. ×47mm black powder rifle cartridge, with a bullet weight as high as 20. grams, and the power was quite good.

However, it was precisely because of such a heavy bullet that the Vitali rifle had a short range, and even if it were changed to smokeless powder, it only had an effective shooting distance of a little over 400 meters.

The new rifle adopted a brand-new 6. 5×52mm centerfire rifle cartridge; because of the reduced caliber, the bullet weight was only about 10. grams.

Coupled with the bonus of smokeless powder, the bullet's muzzle velocity was greatly improved, and by virtue of the extremely high muzzle velocity, it disguisedly compensated for the power lost due to the reduction in bullet caliber.

The experiment could also prove that the power of this small-caliber bullet was not small.

A steel plate with a thickness of one millimeter was placed 100 meters away. Soldiers successively used the 10. mm rifle cartridge using black powder and the 6. mm rifle cartridge using smokeless powder to shoot. Finally, it was found that the 6. mm rifle cartridge completely penetrated the steel plate, while the larger-caliber 10. mm rifle cartridge got stuck in the steel plate.

The next test further proved that the bullet's power had not decreased.

To test the damage caused by the bullet to the human body, the Royal Arms Factory specifically prepared two sheep to simulate the human body.

The 10. mm rifle cartridge using black powder did indeed cause a larger wound, but it only caused a through-and-through wound that was not very large.

On the contrary, the smaller-caliber 6. mm smokeless powder rifle cartridge, because of its high muzzle velocity, tumbled rapidly after hitting the sheep's body, causing a lethal effect that large-caliber bullets could hardly match.

The conclusion was also obvious: compared to large-caliber bullets using black powder, small-caliber bullets using smokeless powder were not inferior in power.

Although the power was not as good as large-caliber bullets that also used smokeless powder, this type of small-caliber bullet was enough to cause damage to the human body, and there was no need to pursue an excessively large caliber.

After all, there were no big guys like tanks in this era that relied on iron and steel plate protection, and ordinary soldiers would not be equipped with bulletproof vests, so small-caliber bullets hitting a person would also cause huge damage.

By the time tanks appeared, it would have long been time for Spain's rifles to be updated. It would not be too late to pursue large-caliber bullets then; there was no need to consider so much now.

Small-caliber bullets could also reduce logistical pressure; the weight of the same number of bullets would be lower, the volume would be smaller, and it would be easier to transport.

Of course, the manufacturing cost of small-caliber bullets would also be lower, which was definitely a good thing for Spain.

After confirming that all the data of this rifle met the requirements of the Ministry of Defense, the next step was the final and most important test, which was the stability of the rifle.

Only by firing continuously without interruption could one test whether the rifle would have problems such as jamming, damage, and barrel explosions.

Only a rifle with a relatively low incidence of such problems could be considered a truly good rifle in the true sense. What the Spanish military needed was this kind of qualified rifle, not a product that looked excellent in data but would have problems once used for a long time.

To better reflect the stability of the rifle, the following test would use all ten new rifles, and under continuous firing, test whether they would have problems due to long-term use.

Considering the rifle's rate of fire, this was destined to be a long test.

The Ministry of Defense's requirement for the rifle's stability test was that it must fire at least 100 rounds continuously without problems to be considered a qualified product.

More bullets would not be realistic; after all, no matter how wealthy Spain's logistics were, they were not wealthy to that extent.

A rifle firing 100 rounds continuously; ten thousand rifles would be 1 million rounds, and one hundred thousand rifles would be 10 million rounds.

How long would it take to fire 100 rounds continuously? According to the maximum rate of fire of this new rifle, it would take less than four minutes to complete.

In any battle of any war, such a situation would be impossible to occur. After all, the bullets of various countries were not blown by the wind; they were produced one by one using various resources.

The maximum number of bullets each soldier could use per day would not exceed one hundred, and some might even be only a few dozen or even a dozen.

Under such circumstances, the 100 rounds of continuous firing required by the Ministry of Defense could already meet the various conditions on the battlefield, so there was no need to consider more stringent requirements.

After the ten rifles experienced a total of 1, 00 rounds of firing, the final design results were also freshly released.

The Royal Arms Factory was worthy of being Spain's largest arms factory; the quality of the weapons designed and manufactured was still guaranteed.

In the continuous firing test of ten rifles, only two rifles experienced jams, and not a single rifle suffered serious damage or a barrel explosion.

Even the jams only occurred after firing dozens of rounds consecutively. Because of the continuous firing, the rifle barrels became severely overheated, causing the internal structure to deform, which led to the jams.

This actually means that, apart from the extreme conditions of internal part deformation caused by such uninterrupted firing, this new rifle will basically not have any problems under normal circumstances, and its stability can be guaranteed.

Upon learning the final test results, the many generals of the military were all smiles, and Kaluo also breathed a sigh of relief.

This brand-new rifle will greatly improve the combat effectiveness of the Spanish Army, which is of great significance to Spain.

Although re-equipping all troops with the new rifles requires a large expense, this cost is clearly worth it compared to the increase in combat effectiveness brought by the rifles.

What's more, Spain's economy is booming, and the government's fiscal revenue is climbing year by year, so naturally, there is no shortage of money to replace weapons and equipment.

Even if the government couldn't come up with the money, the Guofang Force could complete the rearmament in the next few years relying solely on its own annual fiscal budget.

After all, Kaluo has always attached great importance to the military. Spain's military spending has always accounted for about one-third of the government's fiscal expenditure; even with the significant growth in government fiscal revenue in recent years, military spending has not fallen below one-fourth of the total government fiscal expenditure.

With such a sufficient military budget, the Guofang Force felt only joy at the birth of the new rifle and had no worries whatsoever regarding military spending.

Since this rifle has passed the Guofang Force's assessment, the next most important thing is to negotiate the purchase price of this rifle and determine exactly how many rifles and matching ammunition the Guofang Force intends to purchase.

Because the cooperation between the Guofang Force and the Royal Arsenal is quite close, the negotiations between the two sides went very smoothly, and the final negotiation results were quickly released.

Before the negotiations, the naming of this rifle also caused the Guofang Force and the Royal Arsenal to argue for a long time.

In the end, Kaluo made the final decision, using the name of the rifle's main developer, Ma Keqin, combined with the year to name it.

According to the naming rules, this brand-new rifle is called the Ma Keqin M1884 rifle, or the Type 84 rifle for short.

Because the military budget is quite sufficient, the Guofang Force intends to order 300, 00 Ma Keqin M1884 rifles and 50 million rounds of matching ammunition from the Royal Arsenal in one go, allowing the Spanish army to fully re-equip with the new rifles within the next two years.

The Royal Arsenal was ecstatic to receive this order, as it meant that the Royal Arsenal would not lack orders for the next two years, and the factory could work overtime to earn money.

But this was not without bad news. Because of the birth of the new rifle, the original Vitali M1872 rifle almost instantly lost its value, and naturally, there was no need to produce it.

If the Spanish army fully re-equips with the Ma Keqin M1884 rifle, it could phase out nearly 300, 00 Vitali M1872 rifles.

The disposal of so many rifles and matching ammunition will be a huge problem; they can only look for opportunities to sell them to countries in the Americas and Asia, disposing of these weapons and equipment as quickly as possible at a lower price.

The good news is that Spain's colonial army of 138, 00 people can delay equipping the new rifles.

This also means that there are at most 150, 00 Vitali M1872 rifles that truly need urgent disposal, so the difficulty of handling them is not that great, especially given the current acceleration of colonization by various countries, the weapons market is still very large.

Because smokeless powder has not yet been popularized, both Vitali M1872 rifle ammunition and black powder rifle ammunition are still relatively valuable in other countries.

If one waits until European countries gradually equip themselves with smokeless powder rifle ammunition, the value of this old rifle design and black powder ammunition will drop significantly.

This also means that Spain must seize the time difference and sell the weapons and equipment that are about to be replaced as early as possible.

For Kaluo, there are not that many problems to worry about. The replacement of weapons and equipment for the Royal Army is the responsibility of the Guofang Force, and although the weapons and equipment of the Imperial Guard are the responsibility of the royal family, Kaluo certainly will not handle these problems personally.

Of course, regarding the purchase of weapons and equipment, Kaluo is still willing to replace the weapons and equipment for the Imperial Guard as soon as possible.

After the Guofang Force signed the order for 300, 00 rifles and 50 million rounds of ammunition with the Royal Arsenal, Kaluo also had Butler Luo Lun sign an order with the Royal Arsenal to purchase 20, 00 rifles and 2 million rounds of ammunition for the re-equipping and daily training of the Imperial Guard soldiers.

Kaluo will not be the least bit stingy when it comes to the Imperial Guard. The rifles and ammunition spent now will all be converted into combat effectiveness, protecting the royal family and his own safety at critical moments.

For Kaluo, the more powerful the combat effectiveness of the Imperial Guard, the more stable the safety and status of the royal family will be.

6, 00-word two-in-one chapter, requesting monthly tickets!

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(End of this chapter)