Chapter 229 Grevi's Defeat
(The picture below is a schematic diagram of the Lebel magazine, with the bullets connected end to end in the tubular magazine)
Then Charles tried the rifle. As a colonel, he would most likely use a rifle on the battlefield, so he had to learn it.
He soon discovered that the Lebel rifle was equally unfriendly to novices.
This thing uses a tubular magazine.
For other guns, ammunition is loaded vertically into the magazine, but for the Lebel rifle, ammunition is stuffed in horizontally one round after another. Although it can hold 8 rounds and seems to have a large capacity, it will affect the feel.
Because the center of gravity of the gun would change after each bullet was fired, although it was very slight, but it seemed like a different rifle was being held each time. This gave Charles a feeling of confusion, and he couldn't figure it out after practicing for a while.
It would be better if you could put the gun somewhere and shoot, but you can't find a place to put a gun anywhere on the battlefield.
In addition, Charles was a little scared every time he pulled the trigger: the bullets in the magazine were connected one after another, and if the bullet jumped and hit the previous one when firing... would it go off accidentally?
"Let's stop here for today." Charles complained and turned to thank Dominic: "Thank you, Instructor Dominic."
"You're welcome, Colonel." Dominic replied with a smile, "Glad to be of help!"
Then he added, "It's best to practice again tomorrow, Colonel. We need to consolidate our skills."
"Okay." Charles waved back.
After Charles left, Dominic pulled out his pistol and pointed it at the target. He clenched his hands while recalling how Charles had just done it, and adjusted his posture.
“Bang, bang, bang!”
“Bang!”
All six bullets hit the bull's eye accurately.
"Oh my God!" Dominic was surprised and delighted: "It feels great, much faster than before!"
After thinking for a while, Dominic repeated the shooting posture and exclaimed: "This gun-holding posture should be promoted to the entire army. It is very useful!"
Suddenly, there was some applause nearby. Dominic looked in the direction of the sound and found that it was Grevi.
"Hello, Grevi." Dominic asked with a puzzled look, "Why are you here?"
"I just came to see an old classmate. Is everything okay, Dominic?" Grevy walked over.
"Of course," Dominic replied. "Nothing wrong with that."
Grevy smiled and shook his head: "The second son of Saint-Etienne is willing to be a gun tester, and now he is an instructor, and he enjoys it!"
"What else?" Dominic replied as he loaded his revolver with bullets: "Everyone has his own pursuits. Your pursuit is politics. Mine is guns!"
Grevi raised his eyebrows and watched Dominic demonstrate the shooting posture over and over again. He seemed worried about forgetting this posture.
“Bang, bang, bang!”
“Bang!”
Once again, all six bullets hit the bull's eye.
"Your marksmanship has improved!" Grevi said with some surprise in his eyes.
"No." Dominic answered excitedly: "It's this shooting posture. It allows me to shoot faster and more steadily."
"Oh, really?" Grevy complimented, "You invented it? Very good!"
"It's not me." Dominic said with a hint of embarrassment: "It's Charles. He invented this gun-holding posture."
Then, Dominic continued to talk to himself: "It's unbelievable. I started shooting when I was eleven years old, and I have never thought about changing the way I hold the gun until now!"
Grevi's face changed, and he, who was talking and laughing just now, suddenly became silent.
Dominic looked at Grevi in confusion: "You don't seem to like Charles very much?"
Grevi smiled lightly, he knew Dominic's habits. This guy hardly cared about anything except practicing shooting, so he didn't know much about the outside world, and of course he didn't know about his relationship with Charles.
Grevi did not answer. He was silent for a while, then asked without any context, "Have you ever thought about your future, Dominic?"
"What do you mean?" Dominic answered casually, still practicing his gun posture in his hands, hoping to find the best angle.
"The future of Saint-Étienne," Grevy said more slowly. "And your own."
"Maybe I don't need to think too much about these." Dominic loaded the pistol with bullets again and tried to aim at the imaginary enemy left and right.
"No." Grevi took a few steps back and said, "You may not know that your father is cooperating with Charles. He is even following Charles's arrangements. The profit distribution of the cooperation is also 50-50."
Dominic stopped what he was doing, turned his head and looked at Grevi, his face gradually turning cold.
"I think you've noticed it." Grevy raised his head. "For example, grenades, mortars, and small artillery. If this continues..."
"Is this your intention?" Dominic interrupted Grevy. "To divide the relationship between Saint-Etienne and Charles? Or to make me hate Charles?"
Grevy could no longer speak.
As classmates for many years, Grevy knew Dominic's character. Although he was not that smart, he would not change easily once he determined that Charles was a "good person".
Grevy arrived a little too late.
"Just pretend I didn't say anything." Grevi spread his hands to save face: "You'll know later..."
Before he could finish his words, Dominic pulled the trigger at the target.
“Bang, bang, bang!”
Without exception, the bullets hit the bull's eye accurately.
"You'd better leave early, Grevi." Dominic warned expressionlessly: "Otherwise, it will be your turn next time."
Grevy raised his eyebrows: "As you wish!"
This was Grevy's most tragic failure. When he was studying in "Henry IV", he used a series of means to make Dominic believe in him as a "brain trust".
Just now, Grevi was still confident that he could convince Dominic, but he didn't expect this to be the outcome.
“Bang, bang, bang!”
There were several more gunshots behind him. Grevi was so scared that he stopped, gritted his teeth, and quickened his pace to leave.
Dominic looked at the target with a strange expression, as one of his shots missed the bull's eye.
This was a result of distraction, not because of Grevy.
At that time, a picture flashed through his mind. It was in the officers' club. When he was teased by a group of officers, a young lieutenant bravely stopped them and said, "Enough, give the letter back to him!"
"Instructor." An instructor trotted up to Dominic and said, "Mr. Steed wants you to go to the Ritz Hotel!"
Dominic frowned and said "hmm". Could it be some kind of social event? His father knew that he didn't like this kind of thing!
(The picture above shows the "Henry IV" School of Secondary and Higher Education, a school for the nobility founded in 1791)
(End of this chapter)
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