Chapter 456 The feeling of being valued
Charles was waiting for Dominic to ask a question, but Dominic was hesitating, fiddling with his shotgun and looking at Charles, as if he wanted to say something but didn't ask.
"Come on, Dominic." Charles laughed bitterly while holding his coffee. "You are totally different now than when you were shooting."
"That's different, General," Dominic replied, slightly embarrassed. "I can only feel confident when I hold a gun in my hand."
"You are holding the gun now." Charles raised the shotgun in Dominic's hand while holding the coffee cup. "And it is a high-powered shotgun."
"I, I mean target practice." Dominic scratched his head: "Or when designing guns."
"Why?" Charles asked puzzledly.
Dominic shook his head slightly, turned his gaze to the shotgun in his hand, and thought: "I don't know, maybe there is nothing I like or am good at except guns, so I am always isolated..."
"That's enough." Charles said confidently, "It's war time now, and you still designed such an excellent submachine gun. I'm surprised."
"Yes, is that so?" Dominic laughed, feeling a little embarrassed by the compliment.
"Of course." Charles replied: "Did you hear that FN has a Browning?"
Dominic nodded heavily. "Yes, General. Of course I know him. Everyone in the military industry knows him. He is a genius gun designer. Winchester obviously didn't realize this, and it missed an opportunity for great development."
Ciel understood what Dominic meant.
Browning was originally from Winchester, USA, but American capitalists at that time generally lacked strategic vision, and it fell out with Browning because of the contract.
Browning wanted to independently own the "industrial property rights" of firearms, while Winchester wanted to buy it out.
Are you kidding? The money earned from developing a gun is enough to pay oneself a lifetime salary, but Winchester hopes to use part of it to buy out, and buy out all of Browning's inventions.
Only a fool would be willing to do this.
So Browning resigned and hoped to switch to Remington, but unfortunately the owner of Remington died during that time.
Eventually Browning traveled thousands of miles to Belgium to become FN's chief firearms designer.
It is said that FN was about to go bankrupt because it could not compete with Germany's Mauser, and it planned to completely abandon military industry and switch to bicycle production.
The arrival of Browning allowed FN to rise rapidly and occupy a place in the military market.
Dominic was referring to the process in which Winchester missed out on Browning.
(The picture above shows a motorcycle produced by FN in 1914. The Belgian FN was originally a motorcycle company that also produced cars. It entered the military industry by imitating the German Mauser rifle)
Charles nodded to Dominic and said word by word: "You are no worse than Browning, Dominic. I hope you can become the Browning of 'Saint Etienne'."
Dominic was shocked. “No, no, General. I am far inferior to him. You don’t understand. For example, this gun.”
Dominic held up the shotgun and said, "This is Browning's design. It's very suitable for civilian hunting..."
"Think of your own designs," Charles interrupted. "'Saint-Etienne 2', and this submachine gun."
"But they." Dominic blushed: "They are actually your designs."
"To be precise, it was my thoughts, or my needs." Ciel corrected: "You turned them into reality. Am I right?"
Dominic thought about it for a while, then nodded slightly.
If there was any problem, it was that the requirements and ideas given by Charles were too detailed and clear. They had almost outlined something in Dominic's mind. To be precise, most of the design had been completed, and Dominic only needed to implement it.
Ciel asserted: "There are still many things waiting for us to design. You will even surpass him. Do you understand?"
Ciel used "we" instead of "I", meaning that Dominic was also part of it.
Charles does not mind sharing some "industrial property rights" with Dominic. For example, the PPD submachine gun, to which Dominic made a great contribution.
This is a way to win over his subordinates and make them work for Charles wholeheartedly. It is also Charles' plan for future cooperation with "Saint Etienne":
Charles believes that Dominique should be the heir to "Saint-Étienne" instead of his brother Lajoume.
"Yes, General." Dominic understood. He nodded heavily and looked at Charles gratefully.
Then Dominic added: "Thank you, General, not just for this."
Dominic doesn't care about "industrial property rights" or even "Saint-Etienne". What he needs is the feeling of being valued and respected.
Ciel smiled and nodded to show that he understood.
Then he put the coffee cup on the table, raised his head towards the shotgun and encouraged Dominic: "Tell me, what do you think is wrong with this gun?"
"It's fine, General," Dominic replied, "but I think it's only suitable for hunting, not for battlefield use. Its range is too short, only about 40 meters. If the enemy has a rifle in his hand, we will fall to the enemy's gun before we get close and pull the trigger."
"And what else?" asked Charles.
"It spreads over a large area, and many of them are ineffective." Dominic gestured and said:
"We can imagine that its projectiles are shot out of the muzzle like a ball of cotton, and then the ball of cotton spreads out radially, getting bigger and bigger. By the time it reaches 40 meters, the gaps between the projectiles are large enough to accommodate several people."
"What I mean is that even if we aim accurately, the enemy is still within range."
"But there's still a chance we won't be able to knock it down, or we might hit it with one or two pellets but it won't be lethal."
Charles nodded. Dominic was indeed a gun tester, and his analysis of the shotgun was very thorough.
The range and pellet dispersion issues have always been unavoidable problems with shotguns, and they are only useful in special environments such as trenches and street fighting.
But what about other times?
If in a relatively open area, can a soldier with a shotgun only stare or wait to die?
"What if I told you that I have a solution to these problems?" said Charles. "Or a partial solution."
Dominic laughed:
"That's impossible, General."
“If those issues could be fixed, it wouldn’t be a shotgun.”
But seeing Charles' serious expression, Dominic was stunned.
"You, you don't really have a solution, do you?"
(End of this chapter)
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