Chapter 895: Technical Deployment

"Cavalry rifle?"

Zhao Xu revealed his thoughts, and Wang Ying was stunned for a moment.

After thinking for a moment, he said: "There is indeed a schematic for a cavalry rifle in Your Highness's blueprints, and it can be produced immediately."

During this period, the workshops of the Armament Department have been producing Qin-series rifles at full capacity to meet the needs of the Prince's Personal Army, the Qin Army, the Ningjin Army, and the Marine Corps.

Now that the delivery of the Qin-series rifles is nearly complete, the freed-up production capacity can be used to manufacture cavalry rifles.

"Eighty thousand will be enough," Zhao Xu stated a number.

In order to deal with the Northern Di, he had transferred the only independent cavalry unit to the Ningjin Dusi.

This was the cavalry commanded by Chen Hu, totaling thirty thousand men.

In addition to Chen Hu's cavalry, the cavalry of the other three armies totaled about fifty thousand.

This quantity was sufficient.

However, even if they were equipped with cavalry rifles, cavalry sabers would not be phased out.

Cavalry rifles are used for long-range, but for close-range, cavalry sabers are still more efficient for cutting people down.

After briefly discussing the matter of the cavalry rifles, Zhao Xu formally brought up the subject of the Small Thermal Power Plant.

Wang Ying had long since learned of the wonders of electricity from Wang Chong and was deeply interested.

He said: "I will certainly cooperate fully when the time comes."

Zhao Xu nodded; according to his calculations, meeting the electricity needs of the Armament Department would require at least two generator sets.

However, this was naturally not the main point.

He said: "Leave the matter of electricity to the Research Institute; you have a more important task, and that is metal bullets."

He did not mention the machine gun, for only when metal bullets were perfected could one talk about machine guns.

Otherwise, it would be impossible to even conduct test firing.

"Finally, it has come to this step," Wang Ying said, a look of pleasant surprise appearing on his face.

In fact, the development steps for firearms were all on the design blueprints Yan Wang had given him.

It was just that although some things made his mouth water,

the conditions for manufacturing them truly did not exist.

For example, metal bullets.

Although one could craft such bullets by relying on manual labor,

the volume of metal bullets required was too large, manual crafting could not guarantee precision, and the efficiency was too low.

If a jam occurred due to bullet issues during a battle, the problem would be significant.

However, establishing a production line for metal bullets was not an easy task either.

So he said, "To do a good job, one must first sharpen one's tools; I will first work with the Research Institute to build the production line."

After manufacturing the breech-loading cannon, he could not help but ponder the method for manufacturing metal bullets.

When at home, he had also chatted about it casually with Wang Chong.

Wang Chong was very familiar with machinery and gave him a hint: a punch press was needed.

This is a type of lathe that punches flat metal workpieces into a fixed shape within a mold.

It is just like poking a finger into dough; the dough then takes on the shape of the finger.

Since copper is very soft, the punch press can punch the copper into a cylindrical shape, after which the primer and bullet head are installed.

Thus, the metal bullet is born.

It is just that although it sounds simple, establishing all the processes is also very cumbersome.

The primer needs to be processed, and the bullet head also needs to be processed.

The most difficult part lies in the fact that the dimensions of the bullet head must match the dankou.

This is why Wang Chong's Research Institute had already built a punch press but could not manufacture metal bullets.

This requires a stable electric motor to provide stable power to manufacture higher-precision matching components.

"Hmm, the two of you, father and son, should have great tacit understanding. I will wait for your good news. If there are any difficulties, report to me at any time, and I will resolve them for you," Zhao Xu said.

He knew clearly that he did not need to explain too much.

Both Wang Ying and Wang Chong could already handle things on their own.

They did not lack technology; what they lacked were the conditions to realize that technology.

This was also the reason why he was so eager to popularize electricity.

Because the technical level of the entire Yanzhou was constrained by the problem of electricity.

Once electricity was broken through, all aspects would see a comprehensive breakthrough.

After chatting for a while longer about the manufacturing details of metal bullets, Zhao Xu left the Armament Department.

Because he was about to receive the breech-loading cannons, Yang Feng left happily.

Zhao Xu, accompanied by Xu Lie, began to stroll around Yancheng.

During this time, he had been preoccupied with fighting and had not paid attention to the changes in Yancheng for a long time.

At some point, the dirt roads in the streets and alleys of Yanzhou had all turned into wide and clean cement roads.

The roads were bustling with traffic, and the hawking of merchants was endless; the prosperous scene gave him the illusion that he had returned to the Jinling City of the past.

It was even more prosperous than Jinling.

Because in Jinling, only the powerful clans, rich clans, and wealthy merchants wore silk and satin, and one could still see many commoners in rags on the streets.

But in Yancheng, the faces of the passing commoners were all filled with smiles, and laughter could often be heard when they walked together in groups of three or five.

They were no longer wearing old clothes full of patches, but brand-new clothes tailored from machine-made fabric from the Weaving Mill, with fine textures.

In addition to the excellent quality of the cloth, due to the improvement in dyeing technology, the coloring of the fabric was also very uniform and exquisite.

Of course, the improvement of this cloth-dyeing technique naturally could not have been achieved without the contributions of Qu Sheng and the others.

The Physics Laboratory achieved breakthroughs in various technologies.

The Chemical Laboratory was naturally not just sitting around doing nothing.

After the Three Acids and Two Alkalis Project officially began mass-producing these basic chemical raw materials.

They began to continuously synthesize other chemicals with complex structures.

These dyes were also among them.