Chapter 506 Rifle Design

Charles thought that Vice Admiral Elvis would show off in front of him, or at least give him a pretentious lecture, but surprisingly, nothing happened.

When Charles and Tijani stepped forward to salute him, Lieutenant General Ives casually returned the salute and said expressionlessly: "I have inspected the airport with Your Majesty. You have done a great job. The battlefield needs excellent commanders like you! Keep up the hard work. In the near future, the Germans will be trampled under our feet!"

Lieutenant General Elvis exchanged a few polite words with the two of them, and left in disgrace before he could even finish his cup of coffee.

Charles looked at Albert I in confusion, this must be his doing.

Albert I spread his hands, looking innocent: "It has nothing to do with me, Major General, I just told him that this is Belgium, and he may have realized it."

Ciel rolled his eyes, which was an admission.

Tijani thought of the First Special Reconnaissance Army and the Airport Guard that Albert I had started to form a few days ago, and he understood what was going on. He laughed at Albert I and said, "Why do I think this is a conspiracy? Your Majesty, you have made a lot of preparations for today, right?"

Albert I answered seriously: "No, no, this is not premeditated, absolutely not."

He raised his hand and said, "I swear, I didn't know he was coming today."

Charles and Tijanni looked at each other and smiled. This might be the only true word spoken by Albert I.

…

Although Albert I protected Charles from British interference, Charles did not think he was safe.

The British had command in Antwerp and even over the French.

The latter was indirect, as they controlled the French army by controlling Nivelle.

Although this "control" was very limited, because Nivelle had to be responsible to the French Parliament, once the French Parliament was dissatisfied with him, it could kick him out at any time just like kicking out Joffre.

However, Parliament does not understand military affairs.

When it comes to making battle plans, Nivelle's words are the only thing that counts.

Ciel went over his situation in his mind:

The British did not want his military achievements to overwhelm the entire British army, and the same was true for a group of veteran French generals. The parliament did not want a military dictatorship to emerge.

They can all be said to be one's own enemies.

Therefore, the battle plan formulated by them will not be able to benefit them!

Charles believes that one should not have any illusions and must prepare for the worst.

"I'm going to Ghent." Charles got up and took some paper and pen.

"Ghent?" Tijani looked at Charles' back in confusion, then smiled knowingly: "He must have gone to see his future father-in-law and mother-in-law. Good boy, I underestimated him!"

…

Ghent is the third largest city in Belgium. It evolved from the Celtic word "Ganda", which means "the place where rivers meet". The Scheldt River and the Reis River meet here. Convenient transportation makes it a wealthy trading city.

(The picture above shows the buildings in Ghent)

The FN arsenal is located in the eastern suburbs of Ghent, a few kilometers south of Antwerp Road and from Dampoort railway station.

Browning had an independent laboratory in the arsenal. Dominic was surprised to find that Browning's laboratory was much more rudimentary than his own. Many of the equipment were manual and quite old, and there were only a dozen assistants.

Perhaps noticing the strangeness in Dominic's eyes, Browning said coldly: "Gun design does not rely on machinery, but on ideas and analysis!"

Browning pointed to his head and said, "Without ideas, even the most advanced machinery is useless."

Dominic nodded, he understood this very well.

Browning hung his coat and hat on the hanger, sat down at his desk, took a piece of paper and started drawing, saying as he drew:

"I know who you are. You are Steed's youngest son and you may very well be the heir to the Saint-Etienne Arsenal in the future."

"But I just hope you understand one thing."

"The moment you walk into the lab, you are nobody but my assistant, understand?"

Browning paused here, raised his head and looked at Dominic with an inquiring look.

"Understood, sir." Dominic replied timidly.

Browning seemed to sense Dominic's nervousness. He comforted him, "Relax, we are designing guns, not carrying them on the battlefield."

Several assistants around him laughed, which made Dominic a little embarrassed.

What Browning didn't know was that Dominic was nervous because he was worried that he wouldn't be able to do the job, not because of the gun.

Once Browning began designing, he found himself in a dilemma:

The first thing he considered was whether he could make modifications based on the BAR, so that it could meet the requirements of a semi-automatic rifle and be compatible with the BAR, and it would also save a lot of time.

But he found that he could not reduce the weight by doing this.

Semi-automatic can further shorten the gun.

The ammunition capacity can be reduced appropriately, but to what extent is it appropriate?

5 rounds? 8 rounds?

Or 10 rounds?

This is the most troublesome thing about gun design. Many things are not imagined out of thin air. It needs to be combined with the needs of the battlefield, and ultimately it is the "user", that is, the soldier's experience on the battlefield that has the final say.

All of these require a lot of time for testing, modification, feedback, modification and testing again...

For now, let’s make a sample gun first.

Browne sketched on paper as he thought.

Dominic followed the other assistants to familiarize himself with the equipment. He occasionally glanced at Browning's sketch as he passed by, and couldn't help but interject: "Sir, if we want to save weight, I think we can eliminate the magazine."

Browning was stunned. It seemed to make sense. If the ammunition was within 10 rounds, why not change to a double-row internal magazine?

Browning nodded slightly and immediately crossed the magazine out of the sketch.

At this time, an assistant answered the phone and hurried forward to report: "Sir, Charles is here, he wants to see you."

Browning was stunned: "It's only a few days now. He doesn't think it's so easy to design a brand new rifle?"

Dominic sighed inwardly, "Sir, I don't think Charles is here to ask for a gun. He is most likely here to give us the design."

"What?" Browning looked at Dominic in shock. "You mean, Charles has already designed it?"

Dominic nodded. "That's probably the case."

Browning laughed. "That's impossible. He doesn't even have a laboratory. He's been commanding the army..."

"Sir." Dominic replied helplessly: "It was under such circumstances that he designed the 'Saint-Etienne 2' machine gun and proposed the concept of the submachine gun."

"Submachine gun?"

Dominic suddenly realized that he had let the cat out of the bag. At that time, the submachine gun was still a military secret.

(End of this chapter)